InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the InterRent First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 9, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Renee Wake. Please go ahead.

Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining Interrent Reads Q1 2024 earnings call. My name is Renee Wei, Director of Investor Relations and Sustainability. You can find a presentation to accompany today's call on the Investor Relations section of our website under Events and Presentations. We're pleased to have Brad Cutzee, President and CEO, Kurt Miller, CFO, and Dave Nevins, COO on the line today. As usual, the team will present some prepared remarks and then we'll open up to questions. Before we begin, I want to remind listeners that certain statements about future events made on this conference call are forward-looking in nature. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially. For more information, please refer to the Cautionary Statements on Forward-Looking Information in the Reeds News Release and MDNA, dated May 9, 2024. During the call, management also referred to certain non-IFRS measures. Although the REIT believes these measures provide useful supplemental information about its financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Please see the REIT's MD&A for additional information regarding non-IFRS financial measures, including reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measures. Brad, over to you.

Thanks, Renee, and welcome, everyone. Multifamily residential fundamentals in our markets and across Canada have remained robust, underpinning our strong financial and operational results in the first quarter. Occupancy rates remain steady at 96.8% for this total and same property portfolios and are in line with our strategic target for optimal occupancy levels. Rental growth has stayed healthy with a 7.8% increase for the total portfolio and 7.1% for the same property portfolio. Dave will give some details about regional rent and occupancy trends later in the call. Strong rent growth continued to drive positive results. We saw a 7.8% increase in the same property portfolio revenue on the same quarter last year. while operating expenses expanded slightly by 1.2%. This resulted in 11.7% growth and then a further increase in NOI margins by 230 basis points to reach 65.2%. Total portfolio revenues increased 7.6%, accompanied by a solid 11.2% growth in NOI. Our strong NOI effectively offset the increase in interest costs and drove consistent bottom line growth. Our FFO in Q1 increased by 11.7% to reach $21.1 million, representing a 10.8% increase on a per-unit basis, reaching $14.4. We delivered $18.5 million in AFFO, marking a 12.8% increase overall and an 11.5% increase on a per-unit basis, reaching $12.6. During the quarter, we successfully executed our refinancing strategy, and through a disciplined capital allocation process, we have significantly further strengthened our balance sheet. Our key debt metrics are included on this slide, and Kurt will provide further details on our balance sheet later in the call. But first, Dave will take us through some of the operating highlights.