TR Property (TRY ) has spent £19m on two UK industrial estates, its first physical bricks and mortar acquisitions in nine years.

Best known as a pan-European investor in real estate investment trusts (Reits), TR Property can allocate up to 15% in direct property. Its weighting at 31 October was 3.8% but it is looking at further purchases to raise this to 10% of the £1.1bn portfolio.

The biggest of the two latest acquisitions is the £16.05m purchase of a 120,000 sq ft multi-let industrial estate in Bicester, Oxfordshire, on a 5.75% net initial yield. 

Also recently acquired is a 30,000 sq ft light industrial unit in Northampton bought for £3.25m at a 7.5% net initial yield with seven years remaining on the lease and a rent review in two years.

George Gay, direct property fund manager at TR Property, said: ‘These acquisitions mark our first foray back into purchasing physical assets for almost ten years and underscores our focus on core rental growth markets such as light industrial.

‘Our investment team has long recognised the resilience and growth potential of light industrial assets, particularly in light of UK businesses efforts to de-risk global supply chains,’ said Gay, who works with TRY’s lead manager Marcus Phayre-Mudge.

Gay said he would talk to the tenants in Bicester about improving the estate, particularly upgrading its EPC ratings of ‘C’ and ‘D’ with initiatives such as the installation of solar panels.

The trust, which this month won its sixth Citywire peformance award in the Specialist Equities category, has recently refurbished another another of its physical assets, the Ferrier Street Industrial Estate in Wandsworth, London, where a top A+EPC rating was achieved.

The company will publish its half-year results on 2 December. After a third quarter rally saw the shares hit a two-year high of 358p, TRY has retreated in the face of a spike in UK government bond yields following the Budget last month. At 312.6p, the shares yield 5% and have declined 5% this year to stand around 8.6% below net asset value of 345.8p.