Stockland divests $113m in assets in shift towards leading centres

Source: Stockland
Source: Stockland

Property firm Stockland has divested $113.1 million worth of retail assets, exchanging contracts on Stockland Bathurst Shopping Centre and Stockland South in Caloundra as part of its plan to reduce retail town centre weighting across its portfolio to focus on leading centres.

Stockland managing director and chief executive Mark Steinert said the divestment aligns with the firm’s strategy to release capital for reinvestment into its commercial property portfolio.

“These assets take the total value of our commercial property divestments to $448 million over the past fifteen months,” Steinert said in a statement to investors.

“We are on track to meet our current retail divestment targets, with a further $290 million expected to be achieved within the next 12-24 months.”

Steinert said Stockland is focused on delivering community-oriented, convenient and curated retail town centres and will continue to reposition these centres through a focus on customer experience and remixing retail offers toward categories with growth potential.

“This strategy is helping to drive centre performance with foot traffic up 2.5 per cent to July and specialty sales up 4.3 per cent to $9313 per square meter to September on average across our portfolio,” Steinert said.

Earlier this year, Stockland chairman Tom Pockett said the business had ‘recycled’ close to $1.3 billion in capital over the last five years, funding the redevelopment of market leading town centres.

Redeveloped centres typically see specialty retail sales 10 per cent above the national benchmark, according to Pockett, and tailor their dining, lifestyle, services and entertainment options to the communities they service.

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