Home Reit (HOME ), the beleagured homeless accommodation provider, has started a ‘beauty parade’ to review alternative fund managers. It is also considering whether the real estate fund’s investment policy should be changed to enable it to continue as a listed company.

Home, a real estate investment trust (Reit) whose shares have been suspended since the New Year following a devastating report by short-seller Viceroy Research, used Budget day to update shareholders on the strategic review launched last month.

While all options such as a sale or liquidation remain on the table, the board said discussions had begun with ‘a number of candidates’ that could replace Alvarium Home Reit Advisors. One of these is RM Funds, which revealed its proposal to Citywire earlier last month. 

Alvarium ‘continues to work closely with the board and its advisers and will work towards an orderly handover at the appropriate time,’ the board stated.

In connection with this, the company said it was ‘considering whether material changes to its investment policy are necessary or advisable at this stage to continue as a listed company’, adding that these would need shareholder approval.

The board said it was grateful for the support so far from Scottish Widows, the Lloyds bank pensions subsidiary that is Home’s main lender.

It said its auditor BDO was still seeking to finalise the audit of its annual accounts, whose four-month delay led to the suspension of its shares in early January. Forensic accountant Alvarez & Marsal was also continuing its probe into the Reit’s property deals and whether buildings had been falsely inflated.

Meanwhile, Alvarium and advisory firm Simpact were said to be working closely with Home’s tenants to restore rent payments and maintain service provision for the vulnerable residents of its properties. Several of the charities that are Reit’s biggest tenants had refused to pay rent in a dispute over the poor state of some of the properties and the £15m-£20m cost of refurbishment.