Newcastle-headquartered Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, said its profit before tax for the six months ended March 31 soared 122% to £98.8 million as revenue rose 25% to £126.6 million.

Adjusted earnings increased 23% to £46.3 million.

Interim dividend will rise 14% to 2.08p per share, amounting to £15.4 million.

Grainger said it now has a £3.1 billion operational portfolio and a £2.4 billion pipeline.

Grainger CEO Helen Gordon said: “We have delivered a particularly strong performance for the first half of the year with adjusted earnings up +23%, largely driven by our acceleration of growth in net rental income of +23%.

“This is a result of an exceptional lettings performance by the team, which also drove occupancy in our PRS portfolio to 98% combined with like-for-like rental growth of 3.5% and a record rate of lease up of our recent launches.

“The market has strengthened swiftly over the past six months and we have successfully capitalised on this opportunity.

“We are delivering on our growth plans which will see us double in size in the coming years, providing exceptional earnings growth and attractive high single digit total returns to shareholders.

“The UK rental market continues to have a hugely attractive outlook with significant demand, rental growth, yield compression, and structural drivers that favour the professional, large-scale landlord.

“At the same time, Grainger is in a strong position as market leader with a scalable national operating platform, fully-funded secured pipeline and fully integrated business model.

“We are well prepared for the economic challenges facing the UK today of inflation and cost of living rises.

“With a resilient customer base, high quality energy efficient homes, fixed debt costs, fixed delivery costs across the majority of our secured pipeline and limited direct exposure to other inflationary pressures, we are confident in the outlook for our business.”