Demand for housing grows despite affordability challenges
Mirvac Group has identified strong drivers in Australia’s residential property market, including population growth, limited housing supply, and historically low rental vacancy rates.
These factors have heightened demand for housing despite affordability challenges stemming from higher interest rates, which impact first-home buyers, homeowners, and renters.
Additionally, Australia’s ageing population is expected to contribute to evolving housing needs.
Mirvac’s living portfolio, which includes build-to-rent and land lease developments, is positioned to benefit from these trends.
The company highlighted its deep development pipeline and growing customer demand as critical strengths. The build-to-rent sector is also expected to gain from recent government measures, such as tax concessions for managed investment trust (MIT) investments and more favourable capital works deductions.
For the half year ending 31 December 2024, Mirvac Property Trust (MPT) reported revenue of $302 million, down from $342 million in the prior year.
The trust recorded a loss before income tax of $40 million, an improvement from the $193 million loss reported in the same period in 2023. Total assets stood at $10.65 billion, with net assets of $7.66 billion.
The company’s ongoing portfolio adjustments included the disposal of $1 billion in non-core assets over the past 18 months. While this reduced income, it was offset by contributions from new investments, such as the Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund and LIV Mirvac Property Trust, as well as completed developments, including 80 Ann Street in Brisbane and Aspect Industrial Estate in Sydney.
Mirvac also reported $1.044 billion in cash and undrawn borrowing facilities, with no loan repayments due within the next 12 months. A half-year distribution of $178 million, or 4.5 cents per stapled unit, was declared.
