Good morning to everyone on the call and welcome to the GPT Group's first half results for 2025. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which our business operates. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and to their knowledge, leadership, and connections. We honor our responsibility for country, culture, and community in the places we create and how we do business.
I'm pleased to say that in addition to delivering solid financial results in the half, we have meaningfully moved forward our strategy after having invested heavily in our platform's capability and our solid foundations. In the half, we generated $322.6 million of funds from operations, or $0.168 per security, and will distribute $0.12 per security, equivalent to half of the distribution level we guided to for the year.
Our investment portfolio is currently 98.5% occupied, a reflection of how we've been able to meet the accommodation needs of our customers across sectors. Consistent with prior periods, we ended in a strong financial position with ample liquidity and an NTA of $5.31, up from $5.27, reflecting valuation gains across the portfolio.
Now, turning to the next slide, we summarize the current profile of our investment management platform across sectors and investment structures. During the half, our assets under management increased by $2.2 billion - $36.6 billion. This growth was a combination of valuation gains across sectors and the addition of Cockburn Gateway, Belmont Forum, and Macquarie Centre retail assets to the business. The recently announced partnership with QuadReal has just received regulatory approval and is expected to settle in the coming weeks, but is not reflected in this illustration. Moving forward, our strategy is anchored on four fundamental pillars.
Firstly, operational excellence. This pillar is truly foundational. Our investments are not passive assets. Asset-level performance requires expertise and experience in all aspects of investment and asset management. Our second pillar, value creation, we have invested to ensure the business has the capability to create value, and this has included research, capital transactions, corporate development, as well as additional sector and development expertise.
We are now very well positioned to aggressively pursue opportunities and maximize value across our portfolio. Our third pillar, a diversified platform, we see having a multi-sector capability allows us to shift resources and capital to opportunities across the investable universe in Australia. Finally, aligned partnering. In most cases, this means investing alongside our partners at meaningful levels to ensure that there is true economic alignment at the capital level.
We believe this provides the highest level of alignment and demands disciplined investment decisions, including deterring accumulation bias and encouraging active portfolio management. Now, in slide six, we show how we have put these words into action. We've been very active across all of our pillars, and while I'm not going to call out every item on the page, I will make two key highlights.
First of all, the QuadReal partnership and the addition of five shopping centers collectively worth $5 billion have been added to the management platform. Our organization should be very proud of this half, as the results reflect the hard work, capability, and commitment of our team across the organization. While there will be continued refinement, we intend to stay true to the fundamental elements of our strategy, and I will now hand over to Merran to address the financial performance for the half.
Thank you, Russell, and good morning, everyone. I will commence on the segment financial performance slide, focusing on our 4.4% growth in funds from operations achieved for the half year. Overall, the investment portfolio achieved headline growth of 4.2%, comprised of like-for-like net property income growth of 5.6% for the Retail portfolio, 6.5% for the office portfolio, and 5% for the logistics portfolio.
Our retail investment properties experienced strong underlying growth driven by rent reviews and positive leasing spreads, but this was partly offset by divestments, resulting in headline income growth of 1.8%. Our office investment property income grew 9.6%, driven by higher occupancy and rent reviews. Our logistics investment properties also experienced strong underlying growth, driven by positive leasing spreads and structured rent reviews. However, this was offset by divestments, resulting in the headline showing a 9.5% decline in income.
Co-investment income was up 23.9%, primarily due to the addition of the parent partnership assets. Management operations were 3.5% higher due to a part-period impact of new assets under management, offset by lower fees from asset devaluations in the prior period. We expect this to continue to increase for the second half as we see the full period impact of new assets under management.
Lastly, trading profits realized were in line with expectations of $14 million. We do not expect any in the second half of the year. As a result, we have seen an increase in combined investment portfolio and investment management FFO for the half year of 6.4%. We continued to exercise prudent cost control with corporate costs down 3.5%. However, this was partially offset by an increase in finance costs and income tax expense, resulting in FFO of $322.6 million.
FFO is in line with prior period due to higher maintenance and leasing CapEx, as flagged year-end. Given the timing of some of our recent leasing deals in office, our expectation is for CapEx to be skewed in the second half and in the range of $160 - $170 million for the full year. Our statutory net profit after tax for the half year was $329.1 million. Turning now to our financial position, our balance sheet remains strong with net gearing of 30.7% in the middle of our target range of 25% - 35% and material headroom to our 50% covenant, reducing to 28.8% after adjusting for expected post-balance date transactions. We continue to take a disciplined approach to capital management.
We have no unfunded capital commitments, with $1.4 billion of liquidity after adjusting for expected post-balance date transactions, and we continue to maintain our A- S&P and A2 Moody’s ratings. Our weighted average cost of debt increased to 5.4% due to lower hedges rolling off during the period. Our expectation is that our WACC-D for the full year will be 5.3%, and we are currently 80% hedged. I will now pass to Mark Harrison for the investments update.
Thank you, Merran, and good morning, everyone. Valuations stabilized for the six months to 30 June, with our investment portfolio increasing in value by $48.3 million - $15.1 billion, driven by positive income fundamentals and stable capital metrics. Our weighted average capitalization rate firmed one basis point to 5.78%, and the group weighted average discount rate softened four basis points to 7.05%.
During the period, we also saw capitalization rates compress for higher quality properties. Our retail portfolio value increased to $6.1 billion, driven by income growth from positive leasing spreads and a slight firming of the sector capitalization rate. Pleasingly, our office portfolio value also increased by $9.2 million - $4.9 billion, with capitalization rates softening marginally. The demand for premium and A-grade office assets continues to improve.
The logistics portfolio also continued to benefit from positive leasing spreads and income growth on the back of continued low market vacancy. The industrial portfolio value increased by $27.7 million - $4.1 billion, with a slight capitalization rate firming. Across each of the sectors, market fundamentals remain positive, with healthy leasing conditions continuing in both retail and logistics.
Green shoots are emerging in the office sector, with premium and A-grade assets in well-located submarkets showing positive face leasing spreads. Now, turning to slide 12, the disciplined execution of our research-led investment strategy continued to build momentum during the period, with interest shown across all sectors from domestic and international investors. For the half year, we increased GPT Group's strategic holding in Highpoint Shopping Centre, one of Victoria's Premier Super regional shopping centers.
GWSCF acquired a 50% interest in Rouse Hill Town Centre, improving the fund's portfolio composition and positioning the fund for growth. With the continued outperformance of GWSCF, the fund has commenced a target $500 million equity raising. The retail team continued to expand its management operations with the onboarding of five new shopping centers. Only one asset across the retail investment portfolio is now externally managed.
We also completed $2.3 billion of gross transactions during the period and announced a new $1 billion logistics partnership to be seeded with $460 million of balance sheet logistics assets and further growth capital committed. Our focus remains on positioning GPT Group as the leading diversified investment manager in Australia, delivering exceptional value, innovation, and sustainable growth for our investors and stakeholders. Turning to sustainability, our commitment remains to deliver sustainable, long-term value to our investors.
We continue to deliver market-leading sustainability initiatives, with GPT Group ranked first in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment in 2025 and fifth in the 2024 Equileap Gender Equality Global Report. All our ESG activities are aligned with our strategy to optimize asset performance and enhance our competitive position with a continued focus on energy, water, and waste in the assets we own and manage. I will now hand to Chris Barnett for an update on our retail business.
Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. The first half of 2025 has been an incredibly active period for GPT Group's retail business. Our retail management platform has grown exponentially with the addition of five new centers over the past five months, increasing the number of retail assets under GPT Group's management to 18, with the total assets now valued at almost $16 billion.
The February transition of the two parent assets, Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum, now gives us scale in the West and allows us to build on the operating efficiencies of our Western Australian retail management platform. Our co-investment in these two centers also enhances the overall sales productivity and income of our investment portfolio. Another highlight of the half was securing the management rights to Sunshine Plaza and Macarthur Square.
We welcomed these centers to the management platform on the 1st of May, and we're focused on driving performance of these assets going forward. Our assets have benefited from a strong domestic retail economy, consistently outperforming our peers in terms of sales and income growth. Turning to our portfolio performance on slide 16, where our investment portfolio has delivered comparable income growth of 5.6% for the half, predominantly as a result of rental growth and strong leasing performances.
Our centers continue to grow, with total center sales up 3.1% and total specialty sales up 4.9% when compared to the first half of 2024. Total specialty MAT growth at 30 June was 5.5%, with the discretionary categories of technology, dining, and jewelry all benefiting from high customer demand.
We are focused on driving the sales productivity of our assets, and our portfolio has achieved specialty sales productivity in excess of $13,400 per square meter, leading to specialty occupancy costs averaging 15.4%. Our leasing teams continue to produce positive leasing results, achieving portfolio occupancy of 99.7% at 30 June. The combination of specialty sales growth and strong retailer demand has resulted in positive leasing spreads of 4.2% for total specialty deals completed for the first six months of the year.
All of these deals were structured with fixed base rents, with average annual increases of 4.8% and lease terms now averaging over five years. Turning to slide 17 to discuss our outlook for the remainder of the year. The first half of 2025 has been incredibly busy, taking on the management of five new assets valued at $5 billion in the last five months.
I continue to be impressed and am exceptionally proud that the team at GPT Group can manage the scale and enormity of this onboarding task, whilst also delivering exceptional results from our existing portfolio. On top of taking on the five new assets, we've also commenced our Rouse Hill development, and we're happy with the construction progress and the leasing demand.
High levels of occupancy, strong retailer demand to grow and expand in the best assets in the country, and a void of new retail GLA to the market will ensure that our leasing metrics will continue to be favorable. We're pleased with our first half results, and we believe we can maintain momentum for the remainder of 2025. Our assets are in great shape, and our quality portfolio and operating platform are well positioned for future growth. I'd now like to hand over to Matthew Brown for the office sector update.
Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. In the first half of 2025, we believe that the Australian office market reached an important inflection point, marked by a continued improvement in physical market conditions and the emergence of positive capital returns. Against this backdrop, GPT Group's Office Portfolio has continued to grow, reaching $14.7 billion of assets under management. By investment type, the platform comprises $3.6 billion in balance sheet assets, $8.2 billion in pooled funds, and $2.8 billion across separate mandates.
In line with our disciplined approach to active portfolio curation and a key focus on driving investment outperformance, QuadReal completed the strategic divestments of two development sites at 81 and 91 George Street in Parramatta during the period, bringing total owned or managed assets to 27. Turning to investment portfolio performance, the investment portfolio delivered a strong result for the first half of 2025.
Like-for-like net property income growth was 6.5%, the strongest result since the onset of the COVID pandemic, driven by ongoing leasing success and structured rent increases. Approximately 56,000 square meters of new leasing, including heads of agreement, were secured across 70 transactions during the period. Pleasingly, the top 10 deals by area accounted for nearly 50% of total leasing volume, signaling the return of larger space occupiers to the market.
We believe that the right sizing of office space requirements that occurred post-COVID has now generally passed, with approximately 87% of renewing tenants in the first half of 2025 leasing either the same space or more on renewal. Leasing spreads have strengthened to 7.6% in the first half of 2025.
At the same time, average gross leasing incentives on deals completed in the six months to June were down 10% from 39% - 35% when compared to the same period last year. Portfolio occupancy remains high at 94.4%, with a weighted average lease expiry of 4.8 years. Looking ahead for the remainder of 2025, we remain focused on reducing current vacancy across the portfolio and addressing longer-dated forward expiry occurring in 2026 and 2027.
Turning to office platform growth drivers, the implementation of formalized return-to-work policies amongst larger space users and a flight to quality demonstrates the continued importance of the office in fostering organizational culture, collaboration, employee engagement, and talent attraction. These market dynamics, coupled with the low forward supply forecast driven by elevated economic rents, will continue to place downward pressure on incentives and drive positive rental growth going forward.
We expect renewed investor interest in the sector to drive increased capital flows moving forward and are prioritizing the creation of new investment products to complement our existing investment offering as we seek to broaden our existing investor base and grow the office management platform. I will now pass to Chris Davis to present the logistics result.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. The results delivered from the logistics segment in the first half demonstrate the strength of our $4.7 billion platform. We've achieved excellent operational performance from our high-quality portfolio, providing the opportunity to grow the platform with aligned partners. This includes a new joint venture with QuadReal, which is in the final stages of implementation.
Over 95% of the portfolio is weighted to the Eastern Seaboard, and the majority of assets can access over 1 million households within 60 minutes. These dense urban areas attract the highest level of tenant demand and, in turn, deliver outperformance for investors. Market vacancy of 2.8% is one of the lowest globally, and the logistics sector is underpinned by structural trends of population growth, rising GDP, expansion of e-commerce, and retail sales momentum.
Turning to the investment portfolio, high occupancy of 99.5% has been maintained and 5% like-for-like income growth delivered. Leasing outcomes have been key to this result, and average leasing spreads of 37% have been achieved for deals agreed in the half. The two largest transactions were with retailers, reflecting the trend we are seeing in the market of increased activity from corporate occupiers.
The portfolio is well positioned to deliver ongoing income growth, with average leasing spreads of more than 15% expected for the approximately 30% of income expiring between now and the end of 2027. We're engaging with occupiers across the platform and have discussions underway for 2026 lease expires. Now to growth drivers, we're seeing occupiers look to their real estate assets to drive supply chain efficiencies.
Rent continues to make up a small proportion of overall supply chain costs, with tenants looking to upgrade to assets that deliver operational benefits and support sustainability goals. Market supply remains constrained by authority approvals and developers pivoting to pre-leasing strategies. We are progressing milestones across our $3 billion development pipeline. At Kemps Creek in Western Sydney, earthworks are close to completion for the initial stages of our Yeramba East Estate, which we own directly, and for Yeramba West, which is part of our joint venture with QuadReal.
Construction has started on the first two facilities at Yeramba West, with completion in 2026. We're also engaging with potential occupiers to pre-lease additional facilities. Enhanced pricing clarity across the market is resulting in a deepening pool of capital seeking exposure to Australian logistics. This is likely to contribute to yield compression within core industrial markets, particularly in Sydney.
Logistics platform growth will be supported by the creation of new investment products aligned to investor preferences, and we will continue to deliver income growth from our high-quality portfolio. I will now hand back to Russell to provide his closing remarks.
Thank you, Chris. Now is an exciting time for GPT. In 2024, we set the table by defining the strategy and aligning our organizational resources in line with this strategy. In 2025, we have started to execute, and while it's early days, we have seen significant progress and aim to build further. For the remainder of this year and into 2026 and beyond, we expect to see the financial momentum start to manifest in earnings, performance, and growth in cash flow. Our plan will take time, and it is critical we remain disciplined in the allocation and investment of our capital and our partners' capital. Today, I would also like to update our earnings guidance, which was initially 1% - 3% growth over 2024.
Now, barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect to deliver 2025 FFO of no less than $0.332 per security, which represents no less than 3% growth on 2024, and a distribution of $0.24 per security. Thank you for joining this morning, and thank you to the entire GPT team and our partners for contributing to a successful first half of 2025. I will now hand back to the operator for questions.
Thank you. I will introduce each caller by name and then ask you to go ahead. You'll then hear a beep indicating your microphone is live. If you are on a speaker phone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Our first question today comes from James Druce from CLSA. James, please go ahead after the beep.
Yeah, good morning. Congratulations on a strong first half. Can we just touch on guidance for a second? I think your cost of debt, you were guiding to mid-5%, now it's around 5.3%, so there's about a 2% increase there. Can you also touch on just the other things that drove you to upgrade guidance, please?
Yeah, sure, James. It's Russ. The upgrade in guidance really was a combination of things. One, I would say you saw the like-for-like growth and performance of each of the sectors quite strong, and that they're all functioning quite well and actually were ahead of where we expected or priced out our guidance at the beginning of the year. That made us quite confident where we landed on the full year guidance of no less than 3%. There was a little bit of a contribution from lower debt costs, but we also invested further in the parent assets as well. All those, there's a series of things that contributed into us updating our guidance, but like I said, we're quite confident no less than 3%.
Okay, anything on the any fees coming from QuadReal that we should be thinking about?
Yeah, it will materially move the dial given it's going to be closing in the second half. It's obviously base fees and normal fees you'd expect in a partnership. Also, obviously we'll lose some of the MPI on the logistics side for their 80% share of those assets, which is on us to redeploy.
Okay. One more if I may. I perceive the Office Portfolio like-for-like net property income growth was pretty good at 7.6%. I think the actual occupancy was flat if you go to the back end of the presentation. Just curious about how that happened. Is there surrender fees coming through or what's going on there?
James, it's Merran speaking. The actual occupancy, including heads of agreement, is relatively flat, but the rent-paying occupancy has increased during the period, which has resulted in increasing our like-for-like earnings for the period. There are also some one-offs in the period, but they're no different to the previous corresponding period. It's predominantly driven by increasing rent-paying occupancy.
All right, that's it. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Simon Chan from Morgan Stanley. Simon, please go ahead after the beep.
Hey Merran, how much did the rent-paying occupancy increase by, just in % terms?
I think it was 86% at half year and now it's 88.6%, so about 2.5%.
Okay, thanks. That makes sense. My question is on retail. Everything seems to be going good as per Chris's comments, but one thing I just noticed, the holdover seems to be a little bit higher at, I think, 5% from memory I saw in one of the slides. I think you ended December last year at 1% or 2%. Is that all due to Rouse or is there something else?
I'm in, it's Chris. I think you'll always find that your holdovers are elevated at the half compared to the end of the year. Retailers obviously have a lot of momentum wanting to get deals signed and stores upgraded, leading into Christmas. The number that we ended up with at the half was about 5.5%, which is pretty well reflective of what we've had at the half for the last five years. We did achieve 2.5% at December, and we look like we'll be able to beat that with the momentum leading into the end of the year.
Great. That sounds good. Question just on your broader strategy. I think Russell, right at the very start of today's presentation, talked about GPT Group having invested heavily into the platform's capability and it's all set. Where to from here, Russ? You've done all the, I wouldn't say heavy lifting, but the platform's there. What's next? I guess I'm asking this question in relation to slide four in your deck. You've got your investment management picture there, pooled funds, mandates, and partnerships. Which of those three verticals is what you're going to be pursuing or you think there's actually the most growth opportunities there over the next 12 months?
Yeah, look, we're active, Simon, across all three and give you a sense. We're in the market right now raising funds for the shopping center fund, which will be in the pooled fund column. I would see more when we shift somewhere a balance sheet of $12.2 billion into the right-hand side of the columns. You'd see more going initially into partnerships. The mandates, we're not going to probably be actively pursuing new mandates.
We'll be more looking to grow our existing partnerships with the partners we have in place. I would hope to see activity across all three, as well as new ones being established. I'd say the greatest volume will be on the partnership side in the probably for the next 12 - 18 months.
Right, and you think that will include bringing in new partners on the platform, or you think that's probably more likely to expand relationships with existing LPs?
It'll be both. We obviously want to work with our existing partners in the first instance, but we're actually active on several fronts with new parties to the platform.
Great, thanks. Just my last one then on office leasing. I think in one of the slides, you're talking about maintenance CapEx and incentives to be $160 million -$170 million this year, second half biased because of offers. I can't help but notice though that your office leasing volumes in square meter terms are actually a lot lower than last year. Why are incentives and maintenance CapEx increasing so materially versus last year when you're doing less and when the % incentives are actually declining versus last year?
Simon, it's Merran. I'll take that one if you like. That's purely timing related. We don't actually, you don't see those numbers flow through the AFFO until, particularly for fit-outs, until the tenant actually starts occupying the building. The leasing deals being done at the moment, there will be a delay. What you're seeing going through the AFFO at the moment is the last round of deals in the last 6 - 12 months is hitting the AFFO.
Right. I know we're not here to talk about 2026, but based on what you've just said, one could expect, therefore, that going forward, the incentives and maintenance CapEx line should decline. Is that right? Because of the timing issue you just outlined?
We're doing deals 12 - 18 months in advance sometimes. You've still got a fair delay flowing through there, Simon. I do expect it to continue for the next two halves. Hopefully, it should be declining in the second one, but the next half at least.
Okay, very good. That's very clear, guys.
Our next question today comes from Cody Shield from UBS. Cody, please go ahead after the beep.
Good morning, Russell and team. Thanks for the time. I'd just like to pick up on the office thread again. Good to see some green shoots there. How much extra MPI should we be expecting in the second half there from office? I mean, is there a change, you know, half on half given downtime, for example?
Cody, I'll grab that as well. It's Merran. We expect a slight skew in the second half because we see a slight increase in the rent-paying occupancy from first half to second half.
Okay, sure. Maybe turning to retail, how should we be thinking about return on Rouse Hill spend? Are you able to provide any metrics there?
Again, it's Chris. Thanks for the question. Look, with Rouse, we started the project about six months ago, and I think we're delighted with the progress today. We're out of the ground. We've had our first pour. The builders are working well to program, and we look to complete that by the last quarter of next year. The returns, oh, sorry, I should also point out we're probably about 70% leased at the moment as well. Our returns are on track. I think we're looking at around about 6.5% - 7% return on costs.
Okay, that's great. Thanks. Maybe just one more if I may on the debt piece. Just looking at that hedge profile there and the hedge rates, is there anything you can do to, you know, maybe reduce the hedge rate in outer years?
We continue to manage our hedges in the outer years, and we'll continue to work to get that cost of debt down. It's broadly in line with market at the moment, but we'll always proactively manage our hedge to try and get that down.
Yeah, also don't forget, as we redeploy capital, we'll be incurring incremental floating rate debt. You'll probably see some improvement as well, as we're probably higher hedge right now as a result of some of the paydowns we've done.
Yeah, sure, that makes sense. Okay, that's all for me. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Solomon Zhang from JP Morgan. Solomon, please go ahead after the beep.
Thank you. Morning, Russell and team. Thanks for your time. First question from me is just on the office side of things. Again, just back to the rent-paying occupancy. That's 6% below your headline occupancy of 94.4%. Could you just talk to, you know, firstly, how much of that 6% gap is signed leases versus heads of agreement? Secondly, precisely when those signed leases are expected to come through and commence, please?
Occupancy including signed leases is around 94.1%. Occupancy including heads is about 94.4%. Not a huge delta there. Sorry, the second part of the question.
Right. Just in terms of when those leases are expected to commence and flow through to the rent-paying occupancy?
Yeah, we're anticipating for calendar 2025 that that gap will continue to close as those signed leases become rent-paying post completion of fit-out works.
Right, thanks. Second question from me, just looking at slide 11, the retail, I guess, valuation growth in the half is just, it's basically flat. Just trying to reconcile that to your strong like-for-like rent growth that's printing at north of 5%. Cap rates haven't changed that much, but can you just discuss this disconnect and what the valuers are sort of assuming there? It seems like the NOI growth that they're paying is much lower than what you're printing.
Solomon, it's Mark. Metrics are largely stable for the period, with some minor adjustments for the new acquisitions of Cockburn Gateway and Belmont Forum. As you touched on, there's been some income growth, like-for-like, offset with some CapEx and leasing adjustments for the period.
Gotcha. Maybe final question from me, just for Russell, maybe just the timing of the $500 million shopping centers fund capital raise. Is there any color you can provide there and just the level of interest that you've gotten so far?
Look, we've actually got a lot of interest because there hasn't been a product like this, this quality offered to the market in a long time. We're hoping to have an initial first close of at least part of that $500 million in the second half. We're actually very encouraged by the feedback we're getting and also the understanding of what this fund can offer.
Thank you.
Our next question today comes from David Pobucky from Macquarie Group. David, please go ahead after the beep.
Good morning, Russell, Merran, and team. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is a broader strategy question. Could you talk to the preferred use of proceeds from capital recycling, please? I think some of your key strategic priorities include entering a new sector beyond retail, office, and logistics. If you could please talk to that.
Yeah, sure. First of all, the competition for capital internally is based on the opportunity that's available and matching up to our expertise. You'll see the portfolio mix shift over time based on how that opportunity presents itself. Now, with respect to extending beyond the three main food groups that we operate in, I think I've said in the past, it has to match with expertise. It would involve buying a platform, investing in a platform where we bring in that capability.
If I looked at how our pipeline, our investment or opportunity pipeline looks as we sit here today, I would say 80+% of that multi-billion dollar pipeline is related to the three main food groups. I think you'll see us most actively focus on either development of or investment in our existing portfolio and/or extending into other assets in those three main sectors.
Thank you. Just a second one on office incentives, if I could, 35% in the period. Can you just talk to your expectation around stabilization of those incentives and improvement going forward? Just around what you're seeing at the moment, please.
This is Matt here. We're definitely seeing that continued stabilization of lease incentives across the country. In stronger submarkets, we are seeing better performance versus other markets. Generally across the board, we've seen a continued downward trend in leasing incentives offered. The other interesting thing is when you actually break out the incentive between capital contribution to fit out and rent abatement, we're actually seeing a higher proportion of incentive being taken as abatement versus capital contribution to fit out.
Thanks very much.
Our next question today comes from Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey. Ben, please go ahead after the beep.
Yes, good morning. Could you comment on the payout ratio for the shopping center fund and for GWOF for the last six months? I recall a couple of years ago, you rebased the payout ratio for GWOF to be in the order of 60% of FFO. There seems to be a trend across the market just in the context of liquidity improving, asset values having been written down towards a higher payout ratio for unlisted office funds. Just how are you thinking about the payout for the office fund going forward?
There's actually been no change in the payout ratios of either or in the payout policy of either funds. I can't really comment on what's going on in the broader market, what you've seen in the broader market, but there's been no changes since previous changes of, I think, several years ago.
Thank you. Are you able to say what the payout ratio is for the unlisted funds as a percentage of the FFO or the AFFO?
I think it's around 60.
GWOF's about 60% and.
Shopping center funds about 90%.
Okay, terrific. Thank you. The specialty occupancy costs for the retail portfolio seem to have declined by in the order of 700 basis points for the last six months to 15.5%. Is there anything that's changed there in terms of the composition of how that number is reported? It just seems like a material reduction in.
Look, our occupancy cost, I think, is at 15.4% today, which is historically low. I think what we are finding is that retailers are benefiting from really strong sales at the moment. As we all know, we only get sort of an opportunity to reset your occupancy cost every five years. 20% of your stock comes up for renewal. We will, we think, see gradual increases in occupancy costs. At the moment, there's a reasonably good equilibrium between retailers enjoying strong sales growth as well as us being able to achieve positive leasing spreads upon expiry.
Great. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Russell.
Thank you. Just a reminder for those on the phone, you can dial * at any time to join the queue. Our next question comes from James Druce from CLSA. James, please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Just one follow-up, if I may. Just the OpEx number of, you know, the guidance of $160 - $170 million, it's actually a fair step up from, I think, where consensus was expecting. Is that concentrated? Can you provide a bit more color about the actual office assets, where that's largely coming from, and just a bit more color into next year, please?
I can pick up on part of that for you, James. It's in line with where we were guiding to in conversations at December. The run rate for this period is consistent with the last half of calendar year 2024. It is what we were expecting it to play out. The combination of the leasing incentives is about 50% fit-out and 50% rent abatement at the moment. Deals being done are more like 35% fit-out and 65% rent abatement. Matt, is there anything you want to contribute to as in what assets are contributing? Australia Square, Two Park, and Darling Park?
Is it mainly Darling Park? What are the main contributors?
Yeah, the main contributors are Australia Square, Two Park, and Darling Park, as Merran mentioned, and also 181 William, 550 Bourke.
Okay. I think previously you'd said that actual occupancy would be around 92% by the end of the year. Is that still the case, or are you going to do better than that?
Like we said, we're going to see a continued closing of that gap between rent paying and actual occupancy. We executed a significant amount of leasing in the second half of last year and have done a good job this year. We anticipate a continued reduction of that gap.
Right, thank you.
Thank you very much. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Proutt for closing remarks.
Thank you, everybody, for being on the call today. We look forward to meeting you in person in the next couple of days.