Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Sep 30/02) - The landlord formerly known as Urbco is adding to its gigantic collection of Northern property.

"We are growing and have plans to continue our growth," said Jim Britton of Northern Property Real Estate Investment Trust (NPR).

Most of the company's holdings are in NWT and Nunavut.

The Calgary-based company intends to buy Iqaluit rental property owned by Jomanic-Can and Northern Futures in a $37 million deal. NPR's new acquisitions are part of a gameplan to expand its property collection all over the North. The company bought up a multitude of Yellowknife apartment units earlier this year.

Both Yellowknife and Iqaluit are currently suffering from a near-zero vacancy rate. NPR is capitalizing on the housing need.

"We've built and contributed in a major way to the housing stock in Iqaluit and Yellowknife. Not only have we bought stuff from others, we have built an awful lot of housing in those places," said Britton.

He said the company hasn't any immediate plans to raise rents but, "Everything goes up doesn't it?"

As a whole, Urbco apartment rental prices increased four per cent over the last two years.

Last spring NPR was borne from Urbco, a company owning residential buildings and office towers throughout the NWT and Nunavut. Urbco still exists but it is just a subsidiary company of NPR now. The company started out with a successful public offering of $70 million.

"Real estate investment trusts are popular investment instruments right now," said Britton, who explained that the vehicles have less debt and make regular payments to investors.

Real estate income trusts take all the cash flow produced by the company on a monthly basis and they send it out to the unit-holders on a monthly basis.

The changes mean three advantages to the company: The company's value is raised, it distributes income more quickly back to unit-holders and it allows NPR better access to capital.

NPR is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as NPR.UN. The units were first issued at $10 each and closed last Thursday at $12, 50 cents down from its 52-week high.

NPR hasn't released a financial statement yet. Its first quarter ends today.