Stockland divests $420m of shopping centres with more to come
Stockland has offloaded $418 million of its Australian shopping centre assets in the last four months and plans to divest even more as it cuts its exposure to retail and increases its focus on workplace and logistics properties.
Stockland’s retail portfolio now makes up 39 per cent of the total of its property assets by value, compared with 45 per cent a year ago, as a result of divestments, the write-down of property values and an increase in weighting of other asset classes.
The latest shopping centre to be sold by the group is Stockland Baulkham Hills, for about $140 million, to Sydney-based property group Mintus.
The property, 30 kilometres north-west of Sydney’s CBD, has a net lettable area of 17,082 square metres, and is anchored by Woolworths, Coles and ALDI; it boasts 76 specialty stores, 830 car parks and a 200-seat food precinct.
Also flying under the radar is the recent sale of Stockland North Shore in Townsville, which is understood to have sold for about $16 million to Ballina-based funds management business Clarence Property.
It follows the sales of The Pines shopping centre in Victoria and Caloundra shopping centre in Queensland, as previously reported by Street Talk, for more than $250 million in total, to Sydney-based property manager Haben Property Fund.
The handful of properties sold at about a 10 per cent discount to their December book value. It is understood JLL negotiated the latest divestments on behalf of Stockland.
The recent sales follow the settlement of another $220 million worth of non-core retail asset divestments that had been contracted to sell during the previous financial year.
The group has disposed of $923 million of retail properties in the last two years.
“About 12 to 18 months ago we put criteria around the types of assets we wanted to hold and they needed to be the asset that was the primary asset in a trade area … had some future potential to keep evolving as town centres, so that’s what we see across the portfolio,” commercial property head Louise Mason said.
Ms Mason said Stockland intended to sell further retail assets to reduce the company’s capital weighting in retail to 33 per cent from the current 39 per cent, but declined to say when asked whether those sales would happen in the next 12 months or over a longer time frame.
“It depends on the type of asset and the types of buyers,” Ms Mason said.
“We are continuing to see that assets up to $150 million are selling to syndicates and we’ve gradually see that [interest expand] from assets of about $50 million to $60 million.”
“They look at these assets and see the higher yield in the short to medium term and they see that as a good investment.”
