The new chairman of Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust has said the UK economy should “rebound strongly” next year if another national lockdown can be avoided – but warned that real estate values will remain weak.

James Clifton-Brown gave the outlook as the company posted an 11.5% drop in NAV per share to 79.6p in the six months to 30 June, as well as a NAV total return of -9%.

“From a real estate perspective, our investment manager forecasts that valuations will remain weak, although they are unlikely to experience the declines we have seen in the first six months of this year,” Clifton-Brown said.

He added that although some tenants “will continue to have difficulty in meeting rental obligations over the remainder of this year, and quite possibly for the first half of 2021”, most appear to be willing to work with landlords “to come to a mutually acceptable outcome”.

Clifton-Brown continued: “This recovery will not be uniform across the main real estate sectors, with the accelerating move away from high street retail to online retail. The resultant requirement for industrial space means the industrial sector is likely to continue to be the best performing sector.”