Capital Property Fund on Tuesday (31 July 2012) posted a 6.12% rise in its distribution to 33.28 cents per unit in the six months to June 2012 from the same period a year ago.

The property fund said the results were achieved in a difficult macro-economic environment with the office market remaining particularly challenging with high vacancy levels in most nodes and pressure on rentals.

"Despite considerable effort to reduce the office vacancies downsizing and rationalisation by tenants as well as liquidations resulted in the vacancies remaining at a concerning 13.3% it said.

Total comprehensive income for the period increased to R764.7 million from R458.9 million a year earlier.

Total vacancies improved marginally from 6.3% as at December 31 2011 to 6.1% in the review period. Vacancies comprised industrial 4.4% offices 13.3% and retail 6.5% based on gross lettable area.

Looking ahead the group is forecasting growth in distributions of between 4% and 7% per Capital unit for the 2012 financial year.