This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MIRVAC says changes to stamp duty relief announced by the Victorian government will support activity in its residential business after the group recorded a 33% increase in sales activity in its residential business across the first quarter.
Over the 1Q25, exchanged 346 residential lots up 33%, with a further 387 conditional sales and deposits on hand up 40%.
Pre-sales also reached around $1.4 billion over the quarter, with leads bolstered to their highest level in more than a year.
“We have made great progress on our non-core asset sales program in line with our capital allocation targets, while recent development completions across the living and industrial sectors add new, sustainable income to the Group. These completions also contribute to the growth of our established funds vehicles, as we continue to explore further capital partnering opportunities across the group,” said Campbell Hanan, group CEO and managing director at Mirvac.
“Within our residential business, sales activity was up 33 per cent on this time last year, supported by successful releases across our middle ring projects in Sydney. Our masterplanned communities in Brisbane and Perth also continued to trade well, demonstrating persistent demand for quality product in attractive locations, while we saw an encouraging uptick in activity in Victoria.”
Mirvac settled 220 residential lots in the quarter, up from 192 in 1Q24, with defaults remaining low at 2.1%.
LIV Aston, Melbourne reached practical completion, reflecting an additional 474 lots and taking Mirvac’s BTR portfolio to 1,279 operational lots.
“We have a robust program of residential launches coming up over the next 18 months across both masterplanned communities and apartments, including the exciting launch of our luxury apartment project at Harbourside in the next quarter,” added Hanan.
“Initiatives like the Victorian governments stamp duty relief for off-the-plan apartments and townhouses announced this week should also support activity in our residential business.”
Currently, first home buyers and owner-occupiers can access a stamp duty concession when they buy off-the-plan, allowing construction costs to be deducted from the sale price when calculating how much stamp duty they owe. The reduced value for stamp duty calculations following the deduction of construction costs must be under thresholds of $750,000 for first home buyers and $550,000 for owner occupiers. Thresholds will be removed so the concession is available for apartments, units and townhouses of any value.
Across Mirvac’s investment portfolio, office occupancy was maintained at 95.1%, industrial occupancy was at 96.2% and retail occupancy was at 98.2%.
Mirvac reaffirmed its operating earnings per security guidance of 12.0-12.3 cents for FY25 and distribution per security of 9.0 cents.
“We have a clear strategy in place and we continue to focus on leveraging our unique asset creation capability to maintain our leadership in the living sectors and enhance our cash flow resilient investment portfolio,” added Hanan.
“It is encouraging to see the momentum building across the business, with multiple levers for growth into the future.”
