The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Nov. 26, edition that H & R REIT says it has signed deals with multiple buyers to sell a total of $1.5-billion in retail and office properties in Canada and the United States. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that the assets being sold include H & R's 33.1-per-cent interest in Echo Realty LP's U.S. retail portfolio, 27 Canadian retail properties, the Hess Tower office property in Houston, a downtown Toronto office property and another in the Greater Toronto Area. H & R executive chair and chief executive officer Tom Hofstedter says the sales accelerate the trust's portfolio simplification strategy. Mr. Hofstedter says that when the strategy was announced in June, 2021, the residential and industrial segments amounted to 35 per cent of the trust's total portfolio. After the sales announced Tuesday, he says the residential and industrial segments will amount to 83 per cent of H & R's total real estate assets. H & R says it also remains in talks to sell two Canadian office properties in Toronto.