Be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, CEO and Managing Director of Mirvac Group. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Good morning, welcome to Mirvac's first half 2023 results presentation. With me today are Courtenay Smith, Campbell Hanan, Scott Mosely, and Stuart Penklis. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land that we're meeting on today. For us, that's the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and I pay my respects to elders past and present. There's been a number of changes since our last results, with Courenay taking responsibility for capital allocation, which she's going to present on today. Commercial and mixed-use development has been combined with our residential capabilities under Stuart. Scott has joined Mirvac as a head of funds management, which he'll be presenting on today. We do have a lot to get through, so let's get right onto it.
We remain on track for our full year expectations, despite challenging conditions, including wet weather, continued inflation, rising interest rates, supply chain challenges, and labor shortages. Operating profit of AUD 305 million is up 3% on the prior corresponding period. NTA is stable, and third-party capital is up 75% with the addition of MWOF, which Scott will talk to shortly. Gearing is right in the middle of our range, which Courtenay will address. We've had a very busy half continuing to deliver on our urban asset creation and curation strategy. There's a lot on this slide, let me just call out a few points. Pleasingly, our employees remain highly engaged, and we continue to maintain a like-for-like zero gender pay gap for seven years in a row. Our quality balance sheet investment portfolio and the MWOF portfolio continue to deliver outperformance against their respective benchmarks.
Our asset disposal program is progressing well, with AUD 445 million of asset sales exchanged or settled, and 60 Margaret Street in exclusive due diligence. LIV Munro opened in Melbourne near the Queen Victoria Market, as of the end of last week is 32% leased, which is significantly ahead of our expectations. We became the first Australian construction company to be awarded a five-gold star iCIRT rating for excellence in construction quality. We're now on to the third generation of This Changes Everything. Continuing our journey during the period, we committed to the Science Based Targets initiative and published our Scope 3 emissions plan, which is to be net positive by 2030.
This very ambitious target is increasingly critical for all our stakeholders and will require us to leverage our in-house design and construction capabilities, collaborate with our partners, and harness our buying power. There is no doubt that the operating environment in which we're in is challenging. We believe Mirvac is extremely well-positioned, not only to navigate this part of the cycle, but also to benefit from the upswing that will follow. This resilience relies on our unique integrated capability, effective capital management, our strong culture and engagement, and a high-quality investment and residential portfolio with a consistent track record of outperformance throughout many cycles. I'll now hand to Courtenay to talk through the financials.
Thanks, Sue. Good morning, everyone. Turning to the financial results for the first half of FY 2023. Despite elevated uncertainties in the broader operating environment, I'm pleased to announce and report a set of strong financial results for the half. As Sue mentioned, operating profit after tax is at AUD 305 million, representing a 3% increase on the prior corresponding period. The result comprised of a growth in investment EBIT of 24% to AUD 335 million, led by a 3.5% like-for-like growth in NOI. Incremental NOI, mainly from development completions at 80 Ann Street and Locomotive Workshops. Recovery from COVID, mainly driven by our retail assets, and growth in assets and funds management EBIT, with the commencement of the MWOF mandate and performance fees relating to Switchyards.
Offsetting this was a decline in the development EBIT of AUD 68 million. In commercial mixed use, we sold 34 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park and unlocked significant development value. In our residential business, we settled 108, 807 lots with EBIT of AUD 36 million. Compared to the prior corresponding period, this result was lower due to a function of delays in production due to wet weather, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages. In addition, high settlement volumes in EBIT in the first half of FY22 were in part driven by the timing of apartment settlements, including at Voyager in Melbourne. During the last six months, the RBA tightened monetary policies to curb inflation, and as a result, we saw an increase in our cost of funds.
The 10% increase in net financing costs was a result of an increase in the floating rate, with our weighted average cost of debt for the six months 4.5%, compared to 3.4% for the prior period. Higher levels of debt drawn, led by development spend and a skew of residential revenues towards the second half. This was partly offset by higher capitalized interest as a result of our development projects underway. Statutory profit for the period was AUD 215 million, a 62% decline versus the prior period. We recorded an unrealized net development revaluation loss of AUD 19 million, driven by a reduction at LIV Albert Fields due to an increase in construction costs related to planning outcomes. This was partly offset by gains at LIV Munro, which reached practical completion in the half.
Our investment properties recorded a net revaluation gain of AUD 35 million, driven mainly by increases in industrial assets. The increase in other non-operating items in the period related to one-off transaction costs for the transition of the MWOF mandate and selling costs associated with asset sales. Turning now to our capital position. We continue to adopt a disciplined approach towards capital management, which saw us retain our A3 and A- credit ratings from Moody's and Fitch. These strong credit ratings provide us with access to diverse sources of capital and ensure we have the capacity to fund our development pipeline and capitalize on growth opportunities, particularly during volatile periods, which we have seen over the last six months.
Gearing to increase towards the middle of our 20%-30% target range, driven by development settlements and spend, sorry, development spend, and the skew of residential settlements to the second half. This is expected to moderate in the second half of FY 2023, with the receipt of settlements and disposal proceeds. Liquidity is at AUD 1.2 billion, and in line with the stated target, we are 53% hedged. Consistent with our commitment to ambitious ESG goals, we issued our sustainable finance framework late last year, which sets out how the group will issue and manage sustainable finance instruments. Under this framework, all financing arranged during this period was certified by green by the Climate Bonds Initiative, taking the total green debt facilities to AUD 2 billion.
We remain focused on improving the quality of our portfolio by exiting non-core assets and investing capital into the creation of our next generation of assets. This will further modernize our investment portfolio, enhance our ESG credentials, and meet the changing needs of customers. We will increase our capital allocation to build-to-rent, industrial, and modern commercial, and mixed-use assets, which we believe will generate superior total returns and are sector supported by strong market fundamentals. As part of the MWOF transition, we also committed AUD 500 million to a co-investment stake in the prime wholesale office fund, which we expect to deploy in the second half. During this half, we made significant progress executing on our AUD 1.3 billion non-core divestment program, including the settlement of Allendale Square in Perth, 189 Grey Street in Brisbane, and exchange of contracts on Stanhope Gardens in Sydney.
Despite lower transaction volumes in the market, as investors take a cautious approach, we were still able to achieve an aggregate sale price just slightly below book value. As we unlock the value, the value of our development pipeline, we will be disciplined in our approach by utilizing capital efficient structures, pursuing relationships with partners who have aligned interests, and only proceeding on selective developments where return hurdles are met and market conditions are supportive. Entering this next phase of the cycle, we believe the bifurcation of valuations of prime versus secondary assets will become more evident. Our portfolio strategy of investing in modern prime quality assets will minimize the impact of potential headwinds.
Finally, we will continue to maintain our 80/20 passive-active capital allocation target to ensure the group is well positioned to deliver long-term sustainable earnings growth, whilst also having sufficient capital set aside to unlock the value of our development pipeline and deliver high-quality future income. I'll now hand over to Campbell to go through the investment portfolio.
Thanks, Courtenay, and good morning. We've had a busy six months, which has included the onboarding of the MWOF portfolio, executing on the sale of non-core assets, progressing the capital raise in BTR, and commencing the capital raise in industrial development. Pleasingly, rent collection has recovered, like-for-like NOI growth has returned in all asset classes, and leasing volumes, particularly in retail, are back to pre-COVID levels. We continue to execute on our portfolio strategy to increase our asset allocation to industrial, build-to-rent, and new office developments by disposing of non-core shopping centers and older office assets. The quality of the Mirvac portfolio is really showing through despite this challenging environment. We've continued our performance in office and industrial, strong leasing progress in BTR, and improving retail sales.
As you heard from Courtenay, our office business has enjoyed the full NOI benefit of recent development completions of Heritage Lanes at 80 Ann Street, Brisbane, and the Locomotive Workshop in South Eveleigh. Combined with strong like-for-like income growth from the balance of the office portfolio, these projects have helped deliver a 13% increase in NOI on a PCP basis. As you can see from the chart on the right, our strategy of developing and owning a new CapEx-light portfolio of sustainable prime grade assets is delivering significant outperformance to benchmark retains over all time horizons. As well as like-for-like growth of 3.5%, occupancy and leasing activity in our off-office portfolio improved.
The modern nature of our portfolio, 84% of which is developed by Mirvac, is also reflected in continued low CapEx, averaging just 24 basis points over the past 4 and a half years. While market conditions remain subdued, demand is returning. The flight to quality continues, and large tenant pre-leasing interest is growing as the sentiment to return to office improves. Our industrial business continues to perform well, benefiting from strong market conditions as historically low vacancy rates in Sydney of just 0.5% and persistent structural demand drive double-digit rental growth in this market. NOI was up, driven by like-for-like NOI growth, and we completed over 40,000 square meters of leasing deals with spreads of 9%. The strength of industrial assets is reflected in revaluation gains of AUD 41 million as market rental growth more than offset the expansion in cap rates.
We continue to make strong progress across our development pipeline with Switchyards Auburn now 76% committed and due for completion in the next 6 months. Aspect at Kemps Creek is now 64% committed and construction is underway, with the northern precinct due for completion by the end of this calendar year. These developments, along with elevated expiries over the next 18 months, leave us well-placed to benefit from strong leasing conditions. During the period, we purchased the outstanding interest in Switchyards from our JV partner, which has allowed us to benefit from improving rental rates and leasing success. More importantly, it has allowed us to control the capital raise program currently underway to sell down minority stakes in our two active developments, which we expect to contribute to development profits this financial year. Turning to our retail business, we continue to enjoy a rebounding conditions over the half.
We saw sales rates exceed pre-COVID levels, leasing activity return, cash collection improve, and valuation stabilize. NOI was up 38% on PCP, finishing the half at AUD 90 million. Along with improved total sales, which are now ahead of pre-COVID levels, specialty occupancy costs, including CBD, have stabilized at 14%, which augurs well for years to come. We exchanged contracts for the sale of Stanhope Village during the period, slightly above book value, and will settle at the end of the financial year. This sale aligns with our portfolio strategy of investing in retail in dense inner urban catchments, a strategy which is expected to benefit from the recovery in tourists and students already underway. Turning to build to rent, we continue to make good progress in this growing asset class. Underlying fundamentals across the sector remain compelling.
As vacancy rates for capital cities rental stock approaches 1%, rents continue to lift, as evidenced at LIV Indigo, with 5.9% leasing spreads achieved. With significant demographic tailwinds following the resumption of immigration and the return of international students, combined with the restricted supply backdrop, the outlook for the sector is very positive. Leasing at LIV Indigo at Sydney Olympic Park remains high at 95%, and our second asset, LIV Munro in Melbourne, which completed 490 apartments in mid-November, is already more than 30% leased, well ahead of our expectation. Our future pipeline of LIV Anura Brisbane and LIV Aston in Melbourne are under construction and scheduled to complete in early and mid-2024 respectively. Our capital raising progress is also well advanced, with exclusive due diligence underway with two parties.
These parties are aligned with our develop to core strategy with growth expectations to develop 5,000 apartments. We anticipate a financial close prior to year-end. I'll now hand over to Scott for an update on funds management.
Thanks, Campbell, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you this morning, having joined Mirvac as the Head of Funds Management in November last year. While I've only been here a couple of months, I've been particularly impressed with our highly capable funds management team and the significant work already undertaken in the first half. Our third-party assets under management have grown considerably over the last eight years to approximately AUD 18 billion. At this point in the market cycle, our funds management capability is particularly important to diversify our source of capital with aligned co-investors and allows us to leverage our scale, accelerate our secure development pipeline, and improve returns to our stakeholders. The AUD 7.9 billion AMP Wholesale Office Fund has been successfully transitioned onto the Mirvac platform and is now known as the Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund, or MWOF.
We are humbled to be to have been given the opportunity by investors to be the custodians of this high-quality portfolio, which complements Mirvac's on-balance-sheet portfolio. Mirvac's asset creation capability, combined with our ongoing asset ownership, provides a unique alignment model that produces assets that are designed and capitalized to outperform during the operational phase of their life cycle. This powerful combination is well understood as a point of difference by our prospective capital partners. We expect to see further growth in our funds management platform with our BTR capital partnership program in advanced stages. As Campbell mentioned, we expect this to complete in the second half. We've also commenced the process to introduce partners across our high-quality industrial pipeline, including Aspect North and our Switchyard project.
With an identified AUD 5 billion pipeline of capital partnering opportunities, our funds management business will introduce diversity to our capital sources, providing resilience in our earnings and an ability to partner at different points in the value chain and cycle. Following the successful transition of MWOF, the fund has now been through a quarterly reporting cycle with Mirvac. We have welcomed over 50 talented people to the platform without disruption to the performance of the assets or the reporting rhythm to our investors. The fund continues to lead its peer set over 1, 2, 3, and 5 years and is well-positioned to leverage the broader Mirvac asset creation and asset curation skillsets.
As previously reported, Mirvac will provide up to AUD 500 million of co-investment into the fund, which together with external capital appetite, will place the fund in a strong position to continue to execute on strategy through the cycle. Whilst modern high quality portfolio recently enhanced by the completion of Quay Quarter Tower here in Sydney, is strongly aligned with Mirvac's investment strategy and existing portfolio. I'll now hand over to Stuart to run through development.
Thank you, Scott. Good morning. Our commercial and mixed-use pipeline now represents some AUD 12.5 billion. Against the current backdrop, we are increasingly selective on the deployment of development capital, with our committed capital largely centered around build-to-rent and industrial projects. These are progressing well with the successful completion of LIV Munro in November, LIV Aston and LIV Anura, both under construction, and LIV Albert Fields expected to commence construction in the second half of FY23. We also continue to achieve strong pre-leasing success across our industrial development pipeline. Our build-to-rent and industrial portfolios are a powerful demonstration of the flywheel benefits of our asset creation capability, with new high-quality rental income streams being created, reoccurring funds management earnings, potential for development profits and NTA uplift. We continue to demonstrate strong traction across our mixed-use portfolio.
At Harbourside, the main works DA was lodged in December and the project has now achieved vacant possession with demolition works underway. At Waterloo Metro Quarter, we expect to commence construction on the southern precinct, consisting of social housing and student accommodation in the first half of this calendar year. Within our office pipeline, the majority of development approvals have been secured with construction commencement subject to pre-leasing. We commenced demolition and civil works at 55 Pitt Street, and we expect to make a decision on the timing of the construction of the main tower in the coming months. Being prudent with our capital in this environment, we have deferred the near-term redevelopment of our assets at 90 Collins Street and 383 La Trobe Street in Melbourne and 75 George Street in Parramatta, with a strategy to re-lease in the short term.
The ability to adapt to the market and be flexible and selective in our deployment of capital is a strength of the Mirvac integrated model. The combination of this model, together with a diversified sector focus, means that we are better placed than most to manage and respond to market pressures while delivering on our quality, financial and ESG commitments. The recent completion of LIV Munro is a great illustration of the value creation capability of our integrated model. Our ability to leverage our group procurement allowed us to manage cost escalation in a challenging environment. Now this operational asset is a key offering of our planned capital partnership platform that Campbell discussed.
This purposely designed and constructed build-to-rent development has raised the bar for this asset class, achieving an 8.1 star NABERS rating, the highest in Victoria for a building of this scale and leasing well, supported by strong underlying market fundamentals. Turning to our residential business. Against a backdrop of inclement weather and COVID related delays, we settled 807 lots during the first half. Woodlea, Googong, Smiths Lane were the main contributors, with MPC projects contributing 93% of lot settlements. We delivered a gross margin of 28% and expect this to normalize by the end of the financial year as apartment settlements commence at The Langlee in Waverley and NINE in Willoughby. Pleasingly, no defaults were reported during the period.
Our full year guidance of more than 2,500 lots remains on track, subject to ongoing impact of weather and labor constraints on our construction programs. Cost pressures are still being felt across our industry, while we expect that these will moderate in 2023, we anticipate it will take another six months before we begin to see normalization completely. While Mirvac is not immune from these pressures, our integrated model, detailed forward planning, scale of operations and track record for delivery continue to leave us in better place to respond to these challenges. Sales activities have moderated from its peak, coming off a period driven by government stimulus and historically low interest rates. The slowdown in sales activity is particularly evident within the first home buyers group, with buyer sentiment impacted by nine consecutive interest rate rises.
Despite this, we remain well positioned with owner occupiers representing 72% of total pre-sales and customers recognizing Mirvac's strong brand and point of difference. Our strategy to develop for the owner occupier and a focus on quality and care in every detail continues to drive demand and customer loyalty demonstrated by pre-sales growing to AUD 1.7 billion in the first half. We expect sales activity to improve in the coming 12 months as we progress our apartment release programs supported by strong residential fundamentals. While interest rate pressures have impacted customer sentiment and sales, market consensus is that we are nearing the end of the rate hike cycle. Despite the rise in interest rates, underlying fundamentals remain strong with the resumption of immigration to pre-COVID levels and unemployment rates at a new 50-year low.
This, coupled with tight vacancy rates of just 1.1% against a long term average of 2.2%, is driving strong rental growth and demand for more housing. Rental growth across our projects such as Green Square, Marrickville and Harold Park have seen increases of up to 40% from pre-COVID levels. Relative affordability for apartments remains at a near time high, driving a structural shift away from detached homes. Our high quality, well-located apartment pipeline, strategic investment in upfront amenity and strong balance sheet position us well to capitalize on the next phase of a strengthening market. We continue to progress our release program with a number of projects launched to date, including Form at Tullamore, NINE at Willoughby, The Langlee at Waverley, and The Frederick at Green Square.
Isle Waterfront and Charlton House in Brisbane also launched in the past 12 months, now at 82% and 77% pre-sold respectively, inclusive of deposits. We have a pipeline of further high quality, well-located master plan communities and apartment projects ready to launch into a deeply undersupplied market. The fundamentals that support residential demand remain strong, and our customers value the quality of our build, design excellence and delivery certainty. Our robust balance sheet ensures that we're able to maintain a disciplined approach to releases and bring projects to market in response to demand and growing supply constraints, which we expect will deliver significant earnings from FY 2024. Residential markets are cyclical, but we remain confident in our ability to continue to differentiate our product, capitalize on market demand for quality, as well as the underlying shortage of supply, and take advantage of opportunities as they emerge.
Thank you, and I'll now hand back to Sue.
Thank you, Stuart. Subject to no material changes in the market or delivery conditions, we're very pleased to confirm FY23 guidance of operating EPS of at least AUD 0.155, distribution of at least AUD 0.105 and residential settlements of greater than 2,500. We've outlined on this slide some of the contributors to earnings for the year, including an expectation that the average cost of debt will be around 5% over FY23. Here we are at the end of my twentieth and final Mirvac results presentation. It's been quite a remarkable decade during which we have driven a deep-seated transformation of the company. This team has achieved an incredible amount over 10 years. We've grown EPS by 41%, NTA by 68%.
ROIC has been driven upwards from minimal to above our weighted average cost of capital. Our office and industrial portfolios have outperformed the benchmark for the past 10 years, with the office portfolio delivering more than 180 basis points of outperformance over one, three, five and 15 years. In large part, this is due to our creation of Australia's youngest, lowest CapEx, most sustainable portfolio, leveraging our unique integrated model. In 2012, only a third of our portfolio was built by Mirvac. Now that number is approaching 85%. We've delivered 13 award-winning commercial assets over the past 10 years with a value of AUD 6 billion. We've divested AUD 3.3 billion of older style assets, and at the same time doubled the value of the balance sheet portfolio to AUD 13 billion.
Our third-party capital under management has grown 28% per annum to AUD 18 billion. We've delivered 28,000 homes in Australia's major cities in the past 10 years at a value of AUD 15 billion, with a further AUD 17.4 billion of residential projects secured. Add to that our AUD 12.5 billion commercial pipeline, and we have the largest pipeline in Mirvac's history. I have no doubt that this pipeline will continue to gather recognition and awards to add to the 280 awards we've won over the last decade. It's no secret that I'm especially proud that we launched a whole new asset class in build-to-rent to revolutionize the rental experience in Australia. So far, we've delivered 805 apartments with another 1,400 under construction.
Most importantly, our customers love the experience of living in a secure home in our purpose-built rental communities. It's also no secret how proud I am of the culture that we've created at Mirvac. 93% of our staff are proud to work here, and engagement has risen significantly over the decade. Women in senior management has doubled to 43%. We've had a 0 like for like pay gap, 0 for 7 years in a row. We rank the number 1 best place to work in property construction and transport by AFR BOSS, and the one I'm most proud of, by Equileap as the most gender equitable company in the world. As wonderful as all those achievements are, they're not what actually matters in the end. What matters is that we found our purpose to reimagine urban life and be a force for good.
What matters is that we aspire every day to put that purpose into action, not always perfectly, but with genuine intent. I've said many times that people don't come to work to generate EPS. It's not what drives us. We want to belong to something that has purpose, something that has meaning, that resonates with our ambition to leave the world a better place than when we found it. Over the past decade, I've seen that purpose come to life. We're not just creating assets or building buildings. We set out to shape people's lived urban experiences. We set out to create more sustainable, more connected, more fluid, more striking urban environments that bring communities together and enhance wellbeing. We set out to make a significant difference when it comes to our impact on the planet.
When we first launched This Changes Everything back in 2014, there were some who saw us, me, as having our head in the clouds, particularly when we set our goal was to be net positive in water, waste and energy by 2030. We saw it as part of our role to change the game, to be conversation starters, to help our industry move ahead. As ambitious as those targets were at the time, we actually achieved net positive Scope 1 and Scope 2, 9 years ahead of that target. Now we've set even more far-reaching targets, including Scope 3. We're talking to our customers and suppliers about eliminating every little bit of carbon that we can, and we're looking at how we can improve social connections, create a greater sense of belonging, and improve our governance even further.
It has been fascinating over that decade to see the increased focus and interest in ESG from investors and indeed customers. Once seen as nice to have or window dressing, it's now an integral consideration for you as you make investment decisions and your expectations of us continue to rise. That's a responsibility we take very seriously. I find it hard to express just how privileged I feel to have journeyed with this amazing group of people for 10 years, and how proud I am of what we have achieved, but more importantly, how we have gone about achieving it. What's not hard to express is my certainty that Mirvac is in safe hands with the board, Campbell, the leadership team, and all the passionate people of Mirvac. That I'm handing over to an internal successor is testament to the talent in the group.
Mirvac has had an unrelenting commitment to quality, and for 50 years we have not deviated from the high standard of excellence set by our founders. I look forward to watching very proudly from the sidelines, how Campbell and the leadership team will drive Mirvac's next evolution. I'm also looking to the next phase of my career and focusing on how I can contribute towards positive change, leveraging all the lessons I've learned during my time at Mirvac. Creating positive change isn't easy, and it isn't someone else's problem. We all have a role to play, and I hope that I can continue to play mine. All that remains is for me to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, your constructive challenge, and your partnership over the past 10 years.
Now, for the very last time, I get to say, "Let's open up for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask questions, you need to press star one one on your telephone. To cancel a request, please press star one one again. Kindly limit your questions to 2 questions at this time. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for the first question. First questions comes from the line of Sholto Maconochie from Jefferies. Please proceed.
Hi, Sue and team. Congrats, Sue, on a great career at Mirvac Group and all the best for the future. Now to the questions. Just on the result. Originally the guidance had about AUD 45 billion of commercial profits. I think we flagged a bit higher at the quarterly update. Can you break out that AUD 58 million into the sort of the projects that are contributing that you flagged on slide 9?
Hey, Sholto, it's Courtenay. The majority of that AUD 58 million has come from our sale of 34 Waterloo Road. There are other contributors from the wash up of other projects like 80 Ann Street and Locomotive, but the majority of it is from the sell down of 34 Waterloo Road.
Okay. That was originally in guidance. If you look at the higher cost of debt, you released AUD 5 million of or added back of written off debts in retail. Is there any other COVID add backs apart from that AUD 5 million in this result?
No, there isn't. 34 Waterloo Road was considered in our guidance. We've been in conversations around the use of that asset and what we would do with it for some time. I think we flagged the change of use strategy that we were looking at. It was always considered in guidance, but there's always a lot of moving parts in guidance, and I think that the team's done a great job to execute the sale of that asset. Actually, even in the IIP business, recover some monies that we actually previously had written off, but that's not necessarily material to the half year result, and we don't necessarily expect more of that in the second half.
Lower in the second half and just to guidance. The cost of debt guidance up about 40 bits. It's only a slight second half decline, about AUD 0.073 on the earnings to get to your guidance. It seems like that's more resi recovery in the second half because about a 70% skew on settlements, but lower commercial mixed use. It seems with that higher cost debt, the really thing that saved this result was the commercial profits have been a big contributor.
Yeah, the commercial profits have been a contributor in the first half, and I just would flag we do expect them to contribute in the second half. Maybe just sitting back from the whole thing, we have retained guidance, as Sue said. We expect NOI to be lower in the second half, mainly because of the asset sales and some vacancy and development assets which we'd flagged. Asset and funds management will largely be flat. We will have the AWOF mandate come on for the full six months, which will offset the Switchyards performance fee we recognized in the first half.
Commercial and mixed use, we do expect to contribute at least the same amount as it has in the first half, in the second half. That will come from us bringing in a partner into our industrial pipeline. We've been talking for a little while about extracting value from that pipeline and bringing someone in to help us grow. We progress that, and both Campbell and Scott have talked to that. We expect that to contribute in the second half. The remaining disposals will occur toward the end of the second half of the year, which will bring gearing back down toward the lower end of the range.
We've got the higher weighted average cost of debt, which you've picked up. In relation to resi, we are expecting still to deliver our greater than 2,500 lots. The only thing I would flag is, we did flag at the half and in our guidance, it's very heavily Q4 skewed, and the contributors from the New South Wales apartments, some of those have deferred into FY 2024. Whilst we're on lot guidance, there has been an impact to the earnings contribution from residential. Overall, we expect the development segment to contribute from residential and commercial mixed use.
Just to finish up with the guidance question. Because it just wasn't originally about 40, it was saying about half the commercial mixed use profit, so it's more than double the 40. It was 90 last year, so it's gonna be over 90 this year. I guess the composition of guidance has sort of moved around a bit.
Yeah, I think it's fair. The composition within the development component of guidance has probably moved around.
Yeah.
I would say that when we put guidance together, there's a lot of moving parts. 34 Waterloo Road was on in the mix of that, and we're also considering how we're able to progress the capital partner coming into the industrial pipeline.
Yeah. Then just finally on cash flows, kind of two questions. Well, a lot of them, but I'll say they're the one on one. Cash flow is really weak, like operating cash flow. I know there's timing and development, but with negative AUD 199 million versus AUD 413 million in the PCP, what's driving that cash flow? I know costs are up because you're not settling as much in resi, but what's driving that weak cash flow?
The majority of it is development, spend into development and the skew of the residential settlements into the second half. We have flagged a MWOF transition cost, which is in that operating cash flow, and then there's a series of other timing differences which would allow you to reconcile from operating profit to a negative cash flow. The majority of it, about AUD 400 million of that net movement is actually in the development spend.
Okay, that makes sense in the dev spend. Honestly, I'm going to be chucking out one on Resi . It seems to you that the Resi business, the apartments, the affordable stuff in Brisbane and Green Square are doing pretty well, but it's a bit tougher at the higher end, like the Willoughby and the Langlee. Is that a fair comment?
I think that I will unpack that later in the call, but I will give some color to it. If you look at the projects that continue to trade extremely well off the plan, they're projects where they're multi-stage projects where purchasers can see already completed product in that market by Mirvac. Green Square, up in Queensland, Keys 100% sold. Isles sitting at 82% sold. It's actually not cheap product. It's actually owner occupier large product. You know, with Willoughby obviously sitting at 54% pre-sold, we did very well at launch. We've got an extensive amount of inquiry each week and a long list of prospective purchasers. They are all waiting to see completed product.
you know, understandably, many of them are right sizes and wanna see and touch completed product, which is not unusual. We've seen that at projects like Harold Park over the years, where until we've got completed product, you know, we don't see those sales rates pick up. I think importantly, what we're seeing is this undersupply coming through, particularly eastern seaboard of apartments, and that's only just got more exacerbated as many developers aren't starting new projects. We remain extremely confident as we complete these projects into what is a very undersupplied market with enormous rental growth coming through, that our projects and the quality of our projects will really resonate with our customers.
Thanks, Stu, and thanks again, Sue, on a stellar career at Mirvac.
Thanks so much.
Thank you for the questions. As a reminder, you may press star one one to ask questions. Kindly limit your questions to two questions at each request. Next question comes from Stuart Maclean from Macquarie. Please proceed.
Good morning. Thanks for your time, and all the best, Susan, with your future career. First question of mine is just back on the commercial development profit. How do we think about those going forward? Historically, they've been relatively high quality. They've come from ADN Street, Kalabar, South Beverly, 477 Collins Street, where Mirvac developed the asset, sold it down to a third party, and the farm's kind of stayed within the platform. 34 Waterloo Road seems to be a bit more of a trading style profit. Is there anything else in the Mirvac portfolio that we could expect to incur trading profit on a go-forward basis?
I'll start with that. We absolutely don't think of it as a trading profit. As Courtenay said, we've been working on a change of use for that asset for some time, and we understand the value in the asset and when the opportunity emerged that we could create that development profit without taking the risk on the capital, that seemed to us an exceptionally prudent thing to do, and accelerate the receipt of those development profits with much less at risk. I think you would agree that was a sensible choice to make and there isn't anything else on in the books which we consider to be of the same nature.
When we do get to unleash the development pipeline, which is there, the twelve and a half billion dollars through pre-commits, we will be, the earnings will be coming exactly how you've seen them before with development profit, funds management coming through, funds management fees, NTA uplift and new income coming in to the portfolio. As, as we said on the call, there is, while there are still slow decisions in the pre-commitment market, there is an elevated level of inquiry, and, we are hopeful that we will be able to secure some pre-commitments to unlock the, all the value that's sitting in that portfolio, very soon.
Great. Maybe question 1B, just going on from that. Just in regards to the sell down to something like an Aspect or a Switchyard, would any of those profits also roll into FY 2024, or would they mainly just be to half 2023 commercial development profits?
I do love this interpretation of two questions.
Courtenay, maybe the way to think about it is, industrial pipeline is quite large. We're looking to make sure we can continue to grow and execute on the strategy around industrial. We've progressed Switchyards and Aspect North really well in terms of creating development value and leasing up those assets. The team's done an exceptional job. They're ready now to bring a partner in which can help us move forward with the rest of that pipeline. Those transactions are sell downs into a fund and a vehicle that will then generate development earnings, but also add to our funds under management and earnings from that part of the business going forward. Because we're selling those assets into the fund, there's a profit on sale that gets crystallized at that point.
We will continue to execute those sell downs across that industrial pipeline with Aspect South and then into Badgerys Creek at the right time, when we've created the right amount of value. That pipeline will contribute earnings into FY 2024 and potentially beyond on that basis. And it is different to the way we've recognized earnings on something like an 80 Ann Street or other projects before, because those projects are fund through arrangements, and we recognize earnings on a percent complete largely. Whereas what we're doing here, with Switchyards and Aspect North that we're looking at, is actually selling those assets into the fund. It does crystallize profit on sell down.
Okay. Sorry, that's clear. Thank you. Second question, probably one to Courtenay as well. Just how large was that performance fee from Switchyards that was crystallized in the period as well?
It wasn't that large. The movement in that line is about AUD 13 million. Just over half of it was the Switchyards performance fee, the balance was the AWOF mandate fees coming online.
Okay, thank you very much for your time.
Thank you for the questions. The next question comes from the line of Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi, Sue. Echoing earlier comments, congratulations on your tenure and all the best for the future. My first question is in relation to invested capital within development. Could yourself or Courtenay, please just discuss the key drivers of the increase in active invested capital for this period, in particular, commercial and mixed use? As part of that, your expectations for active invested capital for the second half of this financial year.
Yeah, it's largely coming from development spend on the commercial mixed use pipeline that we've been progressing to make sure that we're ready for the moment when pre-commitments come into the market. It's largely related to that. We expect the overall proportion of invested capital, as Courtenay said, to remain stable with our 80/20 rule in the business.
Just to maybe add to what Sue said, you look at the inventory, which is effectively where the invested capital comes from. There is just under AUD 500 million of what was IPUC that's been moved into inventory in the period, which is getting ready for those assets to then sell down, which is in the normal course of what we would do. The net increase in capital is what Sue's talked about in terms of residential, but there's movements in the component parts, which is why you're seeing an increase in that active capital beyond that investment of Resi.
Secondly, on the residential gross margin, to what extent can the increase for this period be explained by the mix shift towards MPC, or were there other one-time factors that have contributed to the increase in the margin?
No, it's entirely related to the composition that is well over 90% contributed by MPC in the period, and they always are lower contributors from a dollar amount, but higher contributors from a percentage amount. As Stuart said in his remarks, we expect that to normalize during the second half when we start the settlements at The Langlee and NINE.
Great. Thanks, Sue.
Thank you for the questions. One moment for the next questions. Next questions we have the line from James Druce from CLSA. Please proceed.
Good morning, Sue and team. Don't wanna sound like a broken record, congratulations, Susan on doing such a wonderful job over the past decade. First question is just on 55 Pitt Street, just sort of the decision tree going forward. Does that remain a bit of a hole in the ground until you get a pre-lease? You know, you always get asked about what the minimum sort of amount is, you know, will you require three or four leases, do you think, to get that going, given that there aren't a lot of large tenants in the market at the moment?
The first thing I'll say is that it is an exceptional project in all regards. Both financially will be an exceptional project and from a sustainability point of view and from attraction to customers point of view. We're very excited about everything that we can deliver from that project. We did make the decision to demolish the existing buildings, as you say, dig a hole in the ground and bring it back up to street level, so that we would be ready, as I said, for the moment when there was a pre-commit in the market. We are in discussions with a number of tenants around a pre-commit.
We will, I think I've said consistently that we will not give you a number as to what the level of pre-commitment would be. It is a large building with a lot, as Cameron would say, to play for. The pre-commitment I would expect will be under 50%. We won't give any detail on what we think that right number is. That's something that we'll consider as a board when that time comes. We are in active discussions with a number of tenants with respect to the offering that we can make there.
Does that include sort of Mirvac's ability to pre-commit as well, or is that still just something that sits there in the background?
Well, last I checked, we're at 200 George Street, so we'll leave it there.
Second question is just a bit of a boring question, but the capitalized interest number has doubled on PCP. The interest expensed in COGS is one third of what it was. It's been a clear benefit for this period, and we sort of know the reasons why. I just wanted to understand how that'll look for the full year. Do you think those two items will marry up again as they have in previous halves or full year results? Sorry.
It's not a boring question, James. Interest is important. At the interest line, we flagged a 5% weighted average cost of debt for the period. I think the interest line will go up. Obviously the capitalized interest will move around when we recognize residential settlements. We'll continue to capitalize that interest to projects that are underway. We do expect, given the skew of the residential settlements to the second half, that quite a bit of that capitalized interest will clear.
Will there be much of a mismatch, but on a full year number between those two items?
Maybe we can pick it up with you offline and go through it in a bit of detail, if that helps.
All right. All right. Thank you.
Other questions? One moment for the next questions. Next question is from the line of Richard Jones of JP Morgan. Please proceed.
Hi. Just in relation to Switchyards, just a bit curious. You've taken the remaining 49% back on balance sheet, taken a performance fee from that, and then you're going to, I imagine, onsell 50%. I can't imagine there's a lot of value uplift between the period you're buying and then you're onselling it, given it's gonna probably be a matter of months. Is that likely to contribute development profit or is it all gonna come from Aspect?
I'll start with that and Campbell can follow on. I think clearly the strategy around bringing it back on balance sheet was part of the strategy to create a clean offering for bringing capital partners into the entire portfolio without having to offer small fractional interests in assets. It was very strategic for us to bring that on balance sheet. It's performed exceptionally well for our partner and for us. Campbell, I'll hand to you to talk about the fund impact.
Yeah. Look, Richard, you're somewhat right. One thing I would say, the rent growth that we've seen in the last six months has really very much come through the last quarter. Certainly now the amount of leasing interest we've had in the last six months and the leasing deals we're doing are well ahead of our expectations, and that is certainly going to value. It will contribute to EBIT when we've eventually get through that process of creating this next fund.
Maybe if I can add, the carrying value that we've got that we bought on market, the Morgan Stanley share. We're not in the habit of revaluing projects materially as they're through the construction. The cost base of that asset that we have will generate earnings when we sell it down. Aspect North and Switchyards will contribute to the fund when we set up the fund, when we're talking about commercial mixed-use earnings.
When you think about it, you're selling the other 50% that you didn't buy then. Is it, is that what you're doing?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Just on AWOF or-
MWOF.
MWOF, sorry. can you just discuss the liquidity commitment and what is the value of the redemption request and how the liquidity that you're providing will be priced?
Yeah, I'll start with that. Clearly this is a Mirvac security holders call, so we will be very respectful of information that belongs to MWOF and not to Mirvac when we discuss the fund. We take our fiduciary responsibilities very seriously around that. But we think about the liquidity that we're providing into the fund, the co-investment, as part of the overall proposition that we put forward to the MWOF investors around alignment of interest and making sure that we have a real alignment with them through a co-investment that's meaningful into the fund. We look at the value of that to Mirvac from the whole picture of the ability to deepen our relationships with capital partners, the fee stream that comes off that into the future.
Scott, would you like to add anything further around that? I think we've mentioned we will be deploying the AUD 500 million in the second half.
Thanks, Sue. I think we see the deployment of that AUD 500 million is a great opportunity to bring alignment to our capital partners. Beyond that, we have conviction in the product that we're putting it into. We are continuing to see a bifurcation in the marketplace between that very high quality, sustainable, next generation style of asset and, you know, lower quality assets. We expect to continue to see relative outperformance as the cycle progresses. As Sue mentioned, that AUD 500 million will go in two different tranches over the remainder of the half.
Sorry, just to clarify there, I mean, if you look at the way that listed office rates are trading, they're trading at prices that imply significant devaluations coming in office, just curious as to how your commitment at NAV or adjusted NAV or how will that be calculated?
Campbell, do you want to touch that?
Look, that's right. Again, you gotta consider this in the scheme of the whole transaction. Our view up front was that a key component of ensuring we were successful in the MWOF transition and transaction was to ensure we had good alignment of interest. To some extent, that is right. Again, you know, this is a really great portfolio of real estate. We are essentially selling older real estate on balance sheet, redeploying capital, essentially partially into MWOF, which we think is, from a quality perspective, is an important trade.
Can I just follow that? Is the portfolio gonna be revalued before you put money in?
Yep. It's revalued quarterly.
Okay. All right. Thanks, guys.
Thank you for the questions. Our next question comes from the line of Tom Bodor from UBS. Please proceed.
Morning, Susan and team. Thanks very much for your time. I was just interested in the writedown at the LIV Albert Fields project. There was talk of an adverse planning outcome, but I noticed that the number of units is still the same between the prior half and this half. Can you just talk to what happened there and sort of how that writedown flowed through that asset?
I can take that. There's a couple of moving pieces in this one. Firstly, yes, there is a lower than underwrite expectation on apartments that we can deliver through the VCAP process. Yes, we've had some increase in construction costs on the way through, and to a certain extent, a lot of that has been covered by the fact that we've got increased rental through that project. The last element, we are gonna be delivering this project slightly differently to what how we would normally. Because this asset will end up in a fund, we will have a different delivery methodology, which will involve the group receiving development management fees and construction margins, which we traditionally don't get.
To a certain extent, that also impacts holding value, but sees a transition of some of those to other parts of the business as revenues.
Okay, thanks. To confirm, it's the same number of total units despite the planning?
To be clear, I think when we published the last compendium, and correct me if I'm wrong here, I think we already had the VCAP at that time, so that number has not changed from the last published number. From, as Campbell said, according to our underwrite, through the VCAP process, we did get a slightly lower yield than we had originally underwritten the asset for. There's all those moving parts as Campbell discussed.
Okay. No, that's clear. Thanks very much. The next question is around the commercial redevelopments that have been deferred. You know, given the comments around bifurcation on office assets, what's your confidence about re-leasing those assets, given that they are older assets, and the rents you're likely to achieve and how that impacts, you know, development commerce going forward as well?
We believe it's a very prudent thing for us to do at this point in the cycle to defer those. There are assets throughout Mirvac's history and over the last 10 years, assets that sat on the balance sheet for years and years and years before they turned into Eight Chifley and before they turned into 200 George Street, before they turned into Olderfleet in Melbourne. It's very much a consistent way of doing business and being very, very disciplined around when we launch new projects and put capital at risk in a development sense. We're confident in the re-leasing. The team's going well in Melbourne, re-leasing 90 Collins Street. We making good progress on all of that.
We believe there is a market for those types of assets and long-term holds as secondary assets for us. They're development plays for the future and that value will be realized in the fullness of time.
Okay. No, thanks very much for that. Congrats and all the best in your future endeavors.
Thanks.
Thank you for the questions. The next question comes from Lauren Berry from Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Morning, everyone. First one from me, just around your asset sale program. Are you able to comment on where the offers for 60 Margaret Street and also 367 Collins were coming in versus your last book values?
Absolutely not. Sorry, Lauren.
Okay, got it. All right.
Sorry. No, Lauren-
Okay.
Let me, sorry, let me add to that. We, we obviously can't talk about where bids are coming in. 60 Margaret Street and Met Centre is first time 100% asset has been offered of that scale in the CBD. It's a very attractive asset for the market. We believe that, well, as I said, we're in exclusive due diligence on that one, and 367 is a little further behind in time.
Got it. Okay, thank you. I guess second one from me, you've got the Waterloo Overstation coming into the pipeline, this result. Are you able to just give a little bit more color around ultimately what are your plans in terms of the affordable housing or the student housing, sorry? Are you gonna hold that long term? What are the economics of the development in terms of cost and yield, please?
Sure. I'll start with that. we'll probably leave the economics for a more detailed part of the call this afternoon, Lauren, if that's all right. I'm very proud actually that the first bit of Waterloo Overstation development that we're going to be commencing construction later this year is in fact the affordable housing, which we are handing back to the Land and Housing Corporation as part of our commitment to social and affordable housing. I think it's very fitting with all of the discussion that's going on around housing affordability at the moment that that's the very first thing that we're doing and starting construction on that imminently. and the student housing has already been pre-sold down.
I'm sorry, just to clarify, the affordable housing, are you getting, are you receiving a payment for that when you hand it back?
That's the social housing. That's part of our contribution as an overall economics that we'd agreed with the government, and that's commercial in confidence. That is something that will be delivered over to the Land and Housing Corporation.
Okay. The student housing, does that contribute to development profits in any way?
It does in the overall commerce of the building, but as Sue said, we've got a takeout on that part of the development already, and the balance of the project has got commercial office and residential to sell product in it.
Great. All right. Thanks, guys. Talk to you soon, and congrats to on your Mirvac.
Thanks, Lauren.
Thank you for your questions. In the interest of time, I'll now take the last question. The last question comes from the line of Suraj Nebhani from Citi. Please proceed.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of quick ones. On the after-sales program, can I just confirm whether proceeds are surplus to capital requirements? You also have quite a bit of capital use there.
I think your question was asset sale proceeds close to capital uses. I think maybe stepping back from it.
Yeah.
We've obviously got a lot of diverse sources of capital. Gearing's obviously at the higher end of the range, but Well, midpoint of the range, but I've talked about the fact that that will come down in the second half with the residential settlements that are skewed to the second half and also those asset disposals. We do expect it to come back down to the lower end of the range. In terms of broader sources of capital, our payout ratio is only up to 80%, so we retain 20% of our operating earnings. We do look at asset sales from time to time, and that's what the program is underway at the moment.
I'd also say a very important part of our sources of capital is the capital partners that we bring on, and we've talked about over time, build-to-rent, we talked about it today and also our industrial pipeline, bringing capital partners into that part of the platform. There is quite a lot of sources that we've got, not just the asset sales. The deployment of that, as I talked about, are into the sectors that we see strong fundamentals in, which is in build-to-rent and industrial, which all of those programs and those pipelines are underway.
Okay. Maybe another way to ask it is that, you know, where do you see gearing settling, maybe, once these larger capital, I guess, you know, sell downs are complete? Would you or where would you prefer it to be at this point in the cycle?
Yeah. We're targeting to keep gearing at the lower end of the range. As I said, expectation is toward the end of FY 2023, that it'll return to the lower end of the range.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Another one was on the, on the retail NOI, a pretty large movement this period. I was just trying to unpack that a little bit. What's the driver? It's obviously moved from AUD 65 million in first half 2022 to AUD 19 million in first half 2023.
I think it's largely to do with the recovery in retail, post-COVID, as we talked about in our remarks, and a slightly better recovery of debt than we had expected.
Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. With that, I'd like to hand the conference to Campbell Hanan for closing remarks.
Thank you all, I'm sure Sue will say the final comment, but before we go, whilst Mirvac will have the opportunity to recognize and say thank you and farewell to Sue, this is probably the only public forum where we'll be able to do it. Sue, on behalf of a very grateful executive leadership team, thanks for being a really inspirational leader. Thanks for bringing purpose and equality to our culture. It's just so important. Thanks for the strategic portfolio changes because I think everyone on the call would recognize that if you put the portfolio of 10 years next to the one we have today, they are unrecognizable. Ultimately, thanks for being a great friend, and we wish you the best.
Thank you. I can't speak. Thank you very much.