Welcome to Stockland's FY 2026 result briefing. There will be a formal presentation followed by a Q and A session. I will now hand over to Tarun Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, for opening remarks.
Good morning, and thank you for joining Stockland's full-year 2026 financial results update. Joining me today is Josh McHutchison, our CFO, and joining us for Q and A will be Kylie O'Connor, CEO Investment Management, and Andrew Whitson, CEO of Development. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay my respects to elders, past, present, and emerging. Over the last five years, our focus has been on reshaping our portfolio, embedding additional growth pathways, and positioning the business for sustainable performance. This time last year, we said that FY 2026 would mark an inflection point in both activity levels and strategic delivery. In this result, you will see that we have not only achieved this objective, but have done so in a rapidly changing macroeconomic environment.
Looking forward, we are confident that the strength of our multi-sector platform can provide further growth as the residential market moves through a more moderate phase of the cycle. FY 2026 was a year of strong delivery, with a step change in development volumes, continued growth in our capital partnering platform, and active recycling of capital into targeted growth areas. Funds from operations was up 10.4% to AUD 892 million with FFO per security of AUD 0.369 at the top end of our guidance range. We delivered this earnings growth while also further strengthening the balance sheet with gearing reducing to 22.7% and NTA growing 4% to AUD 4.39 per security. We maintained our focus on maximizing risk-adjusted returns, delivering return on invested capital outcomes consistently within our targeted ranges. Importantly, we have positioned Stockland for growth in FY 2027.
I am pleased to report today that the disciplined implementation of our strategy has translated to strong operational and financial performance across all parts of the business. In our residential platforms, we delivered record settlements and a 53% increase in sales, and we are well-positioned with strong contracts on-hand for FY 2027. We have delivered a significant increase in volumes across our commercial development pipeline, completing projects with an end value of AUD 830 million and commencing projects worth a further AUD 1.2 billion, creating high-quality investment product for our partners and for us. With the majority of our capital now allocated to our preferred sectors of living, retail, and logistics, we are making good progress in capturing change of use upside within our workplace portfolio and maximizing the value of existing logistics assets through conversion to data centers.
We have approximately 450 MW of power secured across three data center sites, along with a pipeline of four additional identified opportunities, all on land that we already control. Growing our capital partnering platform is an integral part of our strategy, and we were pleased to welcome three new capital partners during the year, Morgan Stanley Real Estate, Mercer, and EdgeConneX. In addition to these new partners, we have expanded partnerships with several existing investors. By expanding our third-party capital base and restocking our development pipelines in a capital-efficient manner, we have significantly scaled our platform, strengthened our market position and portfolio quality, and enhanced our ROIC. Over the last three years, we have increased group assets under management by AUD 5 billion with the addition of less than AUD 1 billion to our net funds employed.
As a result, we have grown our high-quality recurring management income by an average of 25% per annum over that period. Creating something better for the people and communities we serve requires sustainability to remain embedded across everything we do. Recognizing that the homes, communities, and assets we create today will shape how people live, work, and connect for generations. We have delivered close to 10,000 affordably priced new homes and residential lots across the country, with almost a third of these being delivered for first-time home buyers. We achieved net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions, marking a major milestone in our journey toward a low-carbon future and continue to advance initiatives designed to reduce our most material Scope 3 emissions. In FY 2024, Stockland has generated just over AUD 800 million of social value, and our employee engagement remained high at 84%.
Almost 80% of our people own Stockland securities, aligning with the interest of our security holders. I'll now hand over to Josh, who will talk through the financials.
Thanks, Tarun, and good morning, everyone. As Tarun mentioned, the consistent execution of our strategy has delivered strong operational and financial outcomes over the year. This result is characterized by a significant earnings uplift, a strong balance sheet, and capital settings that support future growth. Turning to the financial result in detail. Funds from operations was up 10.4% to AUD 892 million, with FFO per security up 9.1% at the top end of our guidance range. The investment management segment delivered FFO of AUD 606 million, reflecting strong comparable performance and contributions from development completions. Pleasingly, we achieved this growth while also absorbing NOI dilution from the transfer of assets into partnerships during FY 2025 and FY 2026, together with investment in capability and platform expansion.
Development FFO was up 17.3%, driven by a step change in settlement volumes across our residential portfolios, growing development fees from increased activity and partnerships, and a larger contribution from commercial development. We have continued to invest in growth while maintaining cost discipline. Across the group, total overheads have grown by 6.4% per annum over the last three years, while we have grown our revenue base by over 13% per annum over the same period. Net interest expense was down, reflecting higher capitalization into projects in line with increased activation of the pipeline. Statutory profit was up 20.2% to AUD 994 million. This includes just over AUD 200 million of net fair value gains for the period.
Given the scale and duration of major project opportunities that we have secured, revaluations relating to properties under development are expected to comprise an increasing proportion of the group's valuation movements in future periods.
From FY 2027, cumulative revaluation gains relating to these properties will be recognized in FFO when development value is monetized through a capital partnering or divestment transaction and becomes cash backed. This adjustment is not expected to have a material impact on FFO in FY 2027. Looking now at the result for the investment management segment in more detail. We've delivered comparable growth of 3.5% from our portfolio, primarily driven by another strong performance from the logistics portfolio and continued growth from retail. The logistics portfolio benefited from project completions and strong underlying growth, partly offset by lower NOI from the prior year transfer of AUD 400 million of assets into new partnerships and AUD 289 million of strategic asset disposals. Growth in our retail portfolio was supported by strong re-leasing spreads and the completion of three new developments.
We continue to actively manage the workplace portfolio, recycling capital from non-core exposures, and positioning assets for future change of use development opportunities. Communities rental income comprises our established land lease portfolio, which contributed AUD 17 million during the year, and our smaller portfolio of communities real estate assets, which contributed approximately AUD 8 million. Investment management net overheads increased 12% as a result of investment in capability across the business and the growth of operational land lease platform. Turning now to the development segment. Settlements were up 30% in our MPC business. By volume, the proportion of lots settled in joint ventures or project development agreements increased to 55%, primarily due to a greater number of lots settled in our partnership with Supalai.
The MPC development operating profit margin was 21.2%, in line with previous guidance and reflecting further price growth in the Queensland and WA markets during the year, offset by a mix shift to lower margin projects. The land lease development business delivered FFO of AUD 100 million, a 67% increase on the prior year. The business recorded 777 home settlements and transferred three communities into partnerships. The LLC development operating profit margin reflected a mix of settlements from lower margin projects and increasing marketing costs associated with newly launched communities. The commercial development business generated FFO of AUD 35 million, underpinned by build to sell logistics profits and the transfer of three recently completed retail assets into the partnership with Morgan Stanley.
Net overheads increased 13.1%, reflecting growth in the development platform, as well as increased activation of our pipeline. Operating cash flow was broadly in line with FFO at AUD 876 million.
We finished the year with gearing at 22.7%, down significantly from 28.1% at December, reflecting strong second half cash inflows from MPC and LLC settlements and further capital recycling. Our weighted average cost of debt for the year was in line with FY 2025 at 5.3%. We expect this to increase to 5.9% for FY 2027. We extended the tenor of our debt book, and we've maintained prudent levels of hedging and substantial liquidity. Our capital management settings are aligned with our strategic growth objectives, and our funding sources are clearly defined. In FY 2026, we continued to effectively redeploy retained earnings, recycle our own capital, and raise additional third-party capital. Over the last three years, we have raised or recycled an average of over AUD 2 billion of capital per annum, maintaining a strong balance sheet position and enabling future growth. I'll now hand back to Tarun.
Thanks, Josh. We have a simple and effective business model. This leverages our end-to-end development expertise together with investment management capabilities across our targeted sectors. The strength of our business model lies in the way our platforms leverage each other for product, capital, capability, and opportunities, accelerating growth and enhancing returns. Our investment portfolio provides high-quality recurring rental income embedded from its development pipeline and capital sourced from its growing partnership platform. We manage Australia's leading MPC business, which generates attractive through-cycle returns and offers embedded adjacent use opportunities. Our land lease business has rapidly scaled into Australia's leading platform with more than 10,000 existing and future homes, and a pipeline that is sourced from our MPC platform.
Finally, we have a scale opportunity in data centers, partnering with a leading global operator with opportunities sourced from our logistics pipeline that we expect to contribute to earnings in FY 2027 onwards. Moving firstly to the investment portfolio, which represents the high-quality core of our business. The portfolio delivered comparable NOI growth of 3.5%, strong leasing spreads in our essentials-based retail portfolio supported comparable growth of 3.1%, led by non-discretionary categories. The logistics portfolio generated comparable FFO growth of over 8%, driven by another period of very rented, providing good opportunities to square meters of leasing during the year, and is driving solid underlying income growth while also actively managing several assets that are being positioned for further development as either logistics or data center opportunities.
Our commercial development pipeline has an estimated end value of approximately AUD 16 billion, including approximately AUD 9 billion in logistics underpinning future growth and returns. Three recently completed retail assets seeded our new convenience retail partnership with Morgan Stanley. We have further opportunities in retail across our MPC pipeline. Leveraging our cross-sector master planning capabilities, we have secured power at several of our existing logistics sites for change-of-use opportunities into data centers, which I'll talk more about shortly. Turning to residential for sale, our master-planned communities business delivered a 49% uplift in sales for the year and achieved just over 8,900 settlements, up 30% on FY 2025 and above our target range due to a strong settlement performance in the fourth quarter, particularly in Victoria.
Sales momentum was strong in the first half, with second half activity moderating as buyer sentiment responded to cumulative interest rate increases and uncertainty associated with tax changes. Queensland and Western Australia remain the strongest market, with demand moderating but still exceeding available supply. In the New South Wales market, demand is concentrated to more affordable product. In Victoria, demand is stable but running below long-run volume averages. Apart from certain Victorian projects, customer incentives and rebates are running well below historical levels. We have seen cancellations and default rates decline during the year across the MPC business, now running below long-term trends. Our MPC business enters FY 2027 with over 3,800 contracts on hand at an average price above FY 2026 settlements, providing good visibility in a moderating market environment.
The residential market benefits from strong population growth, significant undersupply, and favorable tax settings for new dwellings, which should support a return to equilibrium over the medium term. We first entered the land lease sector five years ago with the acquisition of Halcyon Communities. Since that time, we have scaled the business into a material earnings contributor. On a combined basis, the business generated AUD 137 million of FFO, up 40% on the back of a significant lift in development volumes, an expanding portfolio of established home sites, and strong underlying growth in management income. New project launches and continued demand for our product drove an 88% uplift in net sales volumes for the year and a 48% increase in settlement volumes. We are now actively trading from 17 communities with three additional launches planned for FY 2027, and our established portfolio totals almost 4,000 home sites.
We also expanded our partnerships with Invesco and M&G Real Estate during the year, and we were pleased to welcome Mercer to our platform. Moving on to our data center strategy. Our partnership with leading global operator EdgeConneX provides us with a clear pathway to monetizing the significant value upside embedded in our existing portfolio. By combining our land holdings and development and investment management expertise with EdgeConneX's operational experience, technical capabilities, and hyperscaler relationships, we have created a distinctive end-to-end capability and platform for growth. The Stockland EdgeConneX data center partnership is focused on turn-key data center solutions for hyperscaler customers, primarily in Sydney and Melbourne. There may be sites that are not suitable for the partnership, and in those instances, there is a framework for us to undertake powered land sales or pursue other data center opportunities. Moving on to our data center pipeline.
In addition to the 450 MW of power secured across three sites, we have identified four pipeline projects within our portfolio, three of which have been endorsed by the New South Wales government's Investment Delivery Authority for a fast-track approval process. Given the progress we have made over the last three years in securing power and planning, we expect initial earnings contributions from site transfers in FY 2027. While progressing our data center opportunities, we are maintaining funding flexibility. The combination of partner capital and off-balance sheet leverage provides a significant funding capacity. With our existing land at market value comprising a meaningful component of our equity contribution to the partnership, our cash equity requirements are staged and manageable.
We expect data center funding, including land that we already own, to total approximately 10% of group net funds employed over time, with capital to be recycled from other parts of the business, including our workplace allocation. In summary, our FY 2026 result has demonstrated the resilience, agility, and operational excellence of our portfolio through the cycle, and the strength of our business model. Furthermore, our disciplined execution of strategy over the last five years has set up a focused and diversified business that is positioned for sustainable growth. In FY 2027, the growth in other parts of our business is expected to more than offset a lower MPC FFO contribution. For FY 2027, FFO per security is expected to be AUD 0.38 to AUD 0.39 on a post-tax basis. The distribution per security is expected to be AUD 0.252, in line with FY 2026.
We will now open the lines for questions.
Thanks, Tarun. We will now start the Q and A session. I will introduce each caller by name and ask you to go ahead. You will then hear a beep indicating your microphone is live. Our first question today comes from Callum Bramah from Macquarie. Callum, please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just a couple in there. I just wondered, are you able to tell us what your current estimate is of the capital you will need to contribute into the data centers? Maybe come in a little bit closer on the contribution you are expecting in 2027. Is that because you have good visibility into a contract? As I understood it, that was one of the conditions precedent required for you to cede one of the data centers into the joint venture.
Yeah, Callum. Thanks for the question. So yeah, funding wise, as I said in my speech, this will emerge 10% of funds employed. What our funds employed today is about AUD 15 billion, so 10% of that is what we think our cash equity contribution is to the JV over coming years. That is over coming years. As you know, we just formed the partnership in March this year, so it has only been a few months. But we do have visibility and deals underway in site transfers that will be happening in FY 2027, and that is included in our guidance. But the exact numbers, et cetera, will emerge obviously as the year progresses.
Customers, so hyperscaler customer contracts and visibility on that?
Yeah. Just to be clear, the site transfers can happen before customer contracts are signed. It is just the joint venture needs to be confident that there is enough interest and the sites are high quality. As you know, you just have to look at the seven sites we put on our slide. They are very high-quality sites in strong availability zones. Since we formed the JV, EdgeConneX, our partner, has been talking to hyperscaler customers in the more immediate sites that are further along the planning and power pathway. As you would expect, we are getting some interest, but it is early days, and signed contracts were not a condition precedent to site transfers, just to be clear.
Can I just clarify, and maybe I am reading into it too much, but the terminology around margins. I think you used the phrasing around 20% for your margins, operating margins in MPC, whereas I think historically it has been low 20s range. Is that a slight change? Are you expecting lower margins as we go into 2027? Maybe in relation to that, is the margin on the contracts on hand in line with what you saw coming into or for this year or are they below despite the fact they have got a higher average price?
Yeah. Thanks, Callum. A little bit of color around the margin outlook. There is a combination of factors that have impacted our margins moving forward. We have taken, across the board, a view of more moderate growth in the near term given the change in market conditions. Over the last year or so, we have had some unrealized growth coming through our Victorian portfolio, and then we have traded out of a number of higher margin projects, namely Elara, Newport, Willowdale. So that has meant that our margin outlook is lower than prior year. But remembering a lot of this will be determined, or the future outlook for margin will be determined by what we see once this market starts to recover. A couple of years ago, WA was our lowest margin part of our portfolio. We have seen margins grow there materially as that market recovered.
The margin outlook is influenced on a whole-of-life basis by our view of future growth.
Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Bodor from Jarden. Tom, please go ahead.
Morning, Tarun. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe another way to ask some of the prior question around the data center contribution. You have talked about both in other parts of the business offsetting lower MPC contribution. Are there items outside of data centers that will be contributing that were not contributing in 2026? I am thinking things like land lease sell-down profits or any other items we should be aware of.
Yeah, Tom. Good morning. I think what we are demonstrating in strategy and in execution is that we have multiple strong drivers of growth, which I touched on in my speech, and all of those drivers are now starting to contribute materially. I will go through them. Management income, you have seen us grow that line, the gross line, by about 25%. That trajectory there or thereabouts should continue. As you know, we formed three new partnerships recently, and our platform is growing. That high-quality line continues to grow. Our logistics business, yes, we are doing site transfers, but there is also more development completions coming through, so there is a good growth outlook for our logistics business.
Land lease, again, outside excluding site transfers because we had some FFO contribution, the underlying business in both net income, recurring income from rent and further development profits and margin, and we have guided to an improving margin in land lease, are also going to be growth drivers coming into FY 2027. Our retail business, let us not forget that. After consolidating after a few years, now we are growing that business because we have high conviction in our convenience-based strategy coming out of MPC, and we have Morgan Stanley as a partner looking to grow with us. So a number of growth drivers. Then, of course, data centers, which is the start of earnings contributions from that strategy. As we always said, the initial earnings would be site transfers. That is something we are confident on in FY 2027.
That is just the start. There will be more in future years.
We have identified seven sites, and as we start to get into production, there will be development management, project management, and other fees. Then we get capital partners, there will be further profit events, then development completions, and then investment income. This is a long-term strategy for the group.
Is it right to think the majority of profits will be a completion, or is that not the case?
No, as I said, site transfers, you are already starting those coming through given the value we have added over the last three years. The fees will start to accrue as well as production starts to take place in the joint venture. The real next material, I guess, profit event will be when we start introducing capital partners. That we have lots of times. We have balance sheet funding capacity over time. Initially, we have just started the strategy three months, four months ago by doing the partnership, so it is well underway.
Yeah, thanks. Then maybe just one for Andrew on residential. I would just be interested in how you are seeing residential prices evolving in the corridors in which you have projects at a national level. How much have you seen prices fall and how should we think about, going forward, the potential impact of that given your whole-of-life accounting policy?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Tom. So maybe I can just give you a bit of a view of each of the markets and how we are seeing things progress. Queensland and Western Australia are still the two strongest markets in the country. We are seeing new releases, majority of them selling out on the weekend of release. We have gone from being multiple times oversubscribed to one to two times oversubscribed for those new releases. Real focus on affordable product, and that is a theme across the country, that we are seeing most demand for our more affordable product. Queensland and WA, we have still been seeing half a percent a month of price growth coming through that portfolio at the moment, and that has obviously slowed from 1% to 2% a month that we were seeing 6 -1 2 months ago. New South Wales is very much an affordability-driven market.
Down in the Illawarra where we have got more affordable product, we are still seeing good demand. The northwest at Gables, where it is over AUD 2,000 a sq m , demand has been slower. This market, prices have been moving sideways. There is limited rebating in the New South Wales market at the moment, so we have not seen large rebates being deployed. But very much a price-pointed market. In Victoria, Tarun mentioned that activity has been below long-run averages. So, if you look at the latest national land survey data, it is annualizing running at sort of 8,000 to 10,000 vacant land sales per annum. That is below long-run averages that were more around 18,000 per annum. So activity is still at a low level, but that market has stabilized. It has got a real affordability advantage now.
You can get land in the growth corridors, sub AUD 1,000 a sq m .
That is driving purchases, both first home buyers but also interstate investors into that market. So seeing prices there holding, but we are deploying rebates. We have been doing that really for most of the last half as well. We spoke about that at the half-year update. But seeing prices holding in that market as well.
Thank you. The next question is from Richard Jones from JPMorgan. Richard, please go ahead.
Thank you. Tarun, just in terms of, I was just following on a little bit from the prior questions. Just the commercial development contribution was AUD 35 million in FY 2026. Just wondering if you can give us a rough tier of where that might be in 2027 inclusive of data centers. Is that going to be a material change from that?
Yeah. So commercial development last year in 2026 was mainly logistics build to sell and a little bit of the Morgan Stanley transfer, so we had some earnings from that. This year it is going to be probably less than that. What we have noted, obviously the year is still just started, so we are not relying on a major contribution. Yeah, not in those commercial development lines. But clearly in data centers, as I have already said, we have good visibility of contracts that we are working on that will contribute to earnings on site transfers.
Okay. And maybe just a question for Andrew. Just the banks are saying that loan applications have stabilized in August. I know it is sort of the early days. How are you seeing the volumes of, I guess, late July, early August, and how that compares to June, July? Just trying to get a sense as to whether the trajectory has bottomed or is still trending down.
Richard, from a net sales point of view, our Q4 net sales at around just under AUD 1,950. They were roughly spread evenly over those three months. But we did obviously see a step down to the 512 in July. But we have seen a stabilization of those numbers at around those levels. We've seen inquiries stabilize. We haven't seen a continued fall in either inquiry or sales over that period. And remembering July traditionally for us is a lower month of sales. You've got a few seasonal impacts in there as well, particularly in the southern states before you head into the spring selling season. So that's how the market's looking. Wouldn't like to characterize that we've seen a step up in August.
The next question comes from Lauren Berry from Morgan Stanley. Lauren, please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks, guys. Question for Josh. You said in your presentation that you're moving to now wanting to recognize uplift on developments through FFO. Can you talk a bit more about that change and whether that is being driven by the movement to data center development?
Yeah. Thanks, Lauren. Yeah, we're very much, we're making the change because of the evolution of our business, very consistent with our strategy. We are now seeing a number of large development opportunities that potentially span multiple periods in the future. So, what the new definition of FFO is doing is looking at that cumulative development revaluation gain or loss only when they're realized through a cash-backed capital partnering or a divestment transaction. So as you know, under the previous approach, when development value is created on investment properties, it gets recorded as a fair value gain and excluded from FFO. So we just think this really gives a more complete and consistent measure of the development performance of the business, regardless of whether the asset's held as inventory or investment property. But to be clear, there is no double counting.
Any cumulative revaluation gains will be removed from the statutory revaluation adjustment through that FFO reconciliation. There is no ultimate change in accounting on how we treat these things. It is really just how do we better reflect the development value creation on these projects.
Sorry, are you intending to put Stockland's share of the development gain through FFO? Or is it just simply when you sell down to a capital partner that that share of it gets booked through FFO?
Yeah. Very much only when we sell down. So when we sell down, it is cash backed as we realize that. So the portion that we retain would continue to be revalued through fair value gains.
Yep. Okay, great. On developments under DCF, I understand that you are planning on booking land sale profits in FY 2027. Can you talk a bit more about the timing of when you think that these projects are going to commence actual construction? Also give us a sense of which project is probably the most imminent and whether you would be looking to commence potentially without a contract in place.
Yeah, Lauren. It is a bit early to get into that level of detail. We are just starting the financial year. The deals we are working on, as I said, we have good visibility. They include obviously transfers to EdgeConneX, but you will note we also have the framework in place to do powered land sales if they are not suitable for EdgeConneX, so they could take different forms of earnings contribution. But at the moment, the focus really is still getting planning and full power. So power has been secured, but as you know, it takes 6- 12 months for final contracts to be signed, and some of these sites are working through that process. And also DAs, et cetera, are still coming through.
There is a number of conditions precedent that we will have to satisfy during the course of FY 2027, which we are confident on, and obviously that is why we have included a contribution into our guidance. But as the year progresses, we will share that information with you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Cody Shield from UBS. Cody, please go ahead.
Morning, Tarun team. Thanks for the time this morning. Just first question on MPC. It looks like around 30% of MPC revenues went to JV partners in FY 2026. Where do you see that landing for 2027 and maybe for land lease as well?
It's going to be around a similar number for the year ahead. Obviously dependent on actual volumes coming out of each project, but we would expect the number to be similar. Within land lease, Cody, I might have to come back to you on that number.
Okay, no worries. Maybe just turning to July trading. Very early days, but are you seeing any noticeable shift in the mix of buyer that you're getting? Are you getting more investor activity, post-budget?
It's probably a bit early, Cody. We're obviously monitoring that as well. There is some volatility week on week, month on month, but probably too early to call out a trend. Ultimately, we think the changes towards new built product from a tax policy setting will support the new part of the market. But it needs to be confidence in stabilization of the broader housing market before you see that really play out in bigger numbers.
Okay, got it. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Suraj Nebhani from Citi. Suraj, please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, guys. Good result. A couple of quick ones from me. Sorry to ask the data center question again, but it's hard not to. You outlined 450 MW of secured power approved sites across three of them. Firstly, can you confirm all three are slated for the EdgeConneX partnership and will be built out as fully fitted data centers?
I think what I'd say is the EdgeConneX partnership is to do hyperscaler, fully fitted out data centers. In terms of the specifics of which site goes when, it's too early to say that. Obviously, we need to go through a proper process with our JV partner. There's a very defined process. We are offering those sites as they come up for conditions precedent, and then they'll go through. I think that's what I'd say, Suraj, but too early to start to be too specific on each site transfer. We'll let you know when those start to happen over the course of the year in what happened, but it's just the start of the year.
Thank you, Tarun. Just other one on the funding requirements. It's good to have the clarity on, I guess the percentage of NFE. We keep getting asked about, I guess, what could the potential size of the total capital be in these data center requirements, including the partner contributions? Can you touch on potential end value or of maybe the power approved pipeline or some sort of stuff around the potential spend? Maybe just per megawatt or something like that.
Yeah, I think just the cost per megawatt, approximating AUD 20 million per megawatt is a general rule of thumb. I won't give you a specific one we are using, but as a general, you can use that. So if you use that, you can come up with a cost number. Obviously, value, again, you can make your own assumptions based on what's happening in the market. There's significant value creation. We put an indicative slide there using 100 as the base for you to work through. But as I said before, the current secured pipeline and the others we're working on, we've got a long road ahead that we have good funding pathways for, just on the balance sheet funding. But remembering once customer contracts are secured, these assets become very valuable for capital partnering, and that's our strategy. We've demonstrated in every sector we've done that.
The next two to five years, we've got a lot of value to create and also funding that we'll be taking forward. But as we've articulated, we have good pathways on funding.
Thank you. The next question is from Adam Calvetti from Bank of America. Adam, please go ahead.
Hi, Tarun and team. Just a question on, what's the end value of the data center sites that they're being assessed on? Are you selling them in as powered land? Are you selling them in as a completed data center? How much of the economics are you giving away to EdgeConneX? Just trying to understand and quantify the potential value uplift on this land.
Yeah, Adam. The sites are going to go into the partnership at a fair market value based on obviously a zoned, cleared site with power secured. We are fully capturing the value that we are creating. We, Stockland, because we've been working on these sites for over three years, and we've owned some of the sites for 10, 20 years. Our security holders will be rewarded fairly for that. After that, clearly EdgeConneX brings a lot of value through the technical capability and the operating capability, and clearly the hyperscaler relationships. After that, everything is shared pari passu.
Okay, great. That's clear. I just wanted to clarify, I think you mentioned that the revaluation uplifts in FY 2027 will not be material. Is that correct, or will they have a material contribution to earnings?
No, just to be clear, I think the change in FFO that I talked about, in relation to realized development gains, cash back realized development gains for our investment properties, that will be immaterial for FY 2027.
Thank you. The next question comes from James Druce from CLSA. James, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Tarun and team. Maybe just one more question on the land profits, if I may. It sounds like that will be rolling, or some of that will be rolling into FY 2028 as well. Do you expect to take all of those land profits through 2027?
No, James. Good morning. This is a programmatic strategy for us. There are seven sites identified. We are talking initially only a couple of sites in terms of what is in our initial guidance. There will be more sites in future years. Also, the recognition will span more than one year, depending on the construction program. Obviously, we, the developer, will have some development services agreements to prepare the site, service it, things like that, which will impact the profit recognition. But it will be over multiple years. It is not all in 2027. This is just the start.
Okay, that is clear. Maybe just on the capitalized interest, it picked up from AUD 180 million to around AUD 220 million, I think. That sounds a bit high this year. Can you just provide some guidance for the cap interest for next year, please?
Yeah, James. Obviously, capitalized interest has increased as a result of the increased activation of our pipeline and the slightly higher interest costs. As we look forward, we think it is going to be a similar level of capitalization next year. Slightly higher cost, but yeah, similar level of capitalization next year.
Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey. Ben, please go ahead.
Josh, just a follow-up question on the release of COGS interest for MPC as a percentage of revenue seems to have ticked up for FY 2026. I was wondering if you see that as a new normal run rate for FY 2027 and beyond?
No, listen, it was a little higher. There was included in FY 2026, the sale of Northshore that had a higher proportion of interest capitalized, which was released through COGS. So our expectation is moving forward that it should be closer to our previous range that we have guided. The order of 6%.
Thank you. In FY 2026, you recognize a capitalized interest headwind for MPC. Do you expect that to normalize or just any comments on FY 2027 capitalized interest headwind or benefit for MPC, please?
Yeah. Are you talking about the, because, well, I think it was, what, 6.3% in 2026. It was just above 6%. Yeah, as Josh was referring to, that had Northshore in it, but we have also launched a number of long-dated projects that we have held in our portfolio, Rivermont and Botanica. So you start to get more capitalized interest coming through there. Importantly, in MPC, we released through COGS more cap interest than we took onto the balance sheet over the last 12 months. So you are not seeing a build-up. Yeah, we have given that range of 4%-6%. Yeah, next year is probably going to be towards the top end of that range as well with some of these longer-dated projects coming to market, which is a good thing for activation.
We continue to focus on that ROIC metric as well, to make sure that we are allocating capital in a disciplined way.
Just a question on the WACC guidance of 5.9. It is quite a material increase on FY 2026 when hedging in place seems to be broad down change over the last six months for FY 2027. Just wondering if you have done anything to alter the finance costs that is included in FY 2027 guidance of 5.9 or is it just an increase in the floating rate?
It is really very much the increase in the floating rate. As you just suggested, our hedging is expected to be a similar level in 2026 as to what it was in 2025. But yeah, it is really the increase in the underlying rate.
The next question comes from Claire McKew from Green Street. Claire, please go ahead.
Hi all. Just a quick question on capital allocation priorities. Obviously, there's not appetite to really move the needle on gearing, so you're beholden to rotating capital in partnerships. I'm just curious, given the material levers you have on the development side, where do you see the highest and best use of that capital on the development front? Is it really reorienting to ramp up data centers? Is it on moderating logistics? Obviously, there's retail within the MPCs. If you can just give us some color on where you see the highest and best use of the capital on that front.
Yeah, Claire, yes. I think what I'd say is at the macro level, our general capital allocations to living retail and logistics is appropriate as we see the near and medium term. But within that, where we're allocating, obviously in some of our development business, we go through cycles. We allocated a lot of capital to MPC in the last couple of years. That has worked for us. But as Andrew said, we're very ROIC disciplined. Our ROIC in the MPC business through the cycle, we've demonstrated somewhere between 15%-17%. So that implies if sales slow, we will pull some of the capital back from that business and allocate to other growth areas, like data centers and logistics, where we're still making good returns, including land lease.
But over the next three to five years, what you should expect is that as we start allocating more to data centers, we will start to moderate our workplace, our office exposure. That is not as strong a conviction sector for us. But we will do that as the funding requirements come through. We've already done it through change of use, to higher uses to either data centers or build to rent or to resi for sale. So that's a key source of funding and recycling that we'll do. We've been recycling AUD 700 million of assets every year in a systematic way. Then you've got to remember, we're now starting to build a very strong track record in attracting blue-chip capital to our platform.
When we are doing new development, new starts, if we are putting 70% or 50% partner capital and off-balance sheet leverage within our guidelines, that provides a significant firepower to the group to grow our businesses and we have demonstrated that last year. We raised about AUD 2 billion of capital in that way. It will be a combination of down weighting of workplace and capital partnering.
Okay. Thanks. That is helpful. Just appreciate there has been a lot of discussion on the data center development land profit coming through, but just really specifically, so you have mentioned it is cash-backed. Obviously, once you contribute it into the partnership, there is no cash flow. Rather, the cash benefit is being driven by the fact that you have contributed that capital by virtue of the land profit. In turn, that reduces the burden on the remaining development cost. I am just curious.
Yes.
Because you have baked that within that profit. That is correct, right?
No. When we sell down our land positions into partnerships, our capital partner or third-party JV partners settle it with cash, hard cash. That is what we will be.
Oh, they are too.
Yeah. There is no non-cash. This is hard cash that comes back, including any WIP or whatever is accrued to the land, and any development margin that we are realizing on sell down, that will all be cash backed in future years. That is the business model of the group. We are a developer across our logistics. We have got major projects coming through, as Josh said, data centers, retail, et cetera. So it is just reflecting the activity of a developer. When we sell our positions, we get cash, and we recognize it in FFO.
Okay. So there is not a lag there in terms of just a lower. Okay. Got it. Just in that vein, if we look at, say, one of your projects like Cherry Lane, which is obviously a smaller one, just running some high-level numbers on that land's potential land profit contribution based on broader market evidence. You mentioned that that contribution will be negligible this year, but when I run numbers on at least one of those assets coming through to the partnership, it has the ability just on that land profit to move the needle by perhaps 3%-5% of your FFO. So I am just wondering, can you give us a sense of the profitability you are expecting in terms of, say, from land prior to the power secured and development secured, versus what you are expecting to achieve on that transfer?
Yeah. It really depends on our holding values. There are seven sites that we have identified, so it will depend on what our carrying value is. But general rule of thumb, if you have got logistics land and that secures power and planning, it can be anywhere from, depending on what you are doing, from at book value to 2x book value. So again, it will be site by site. Yeah, I think the specifics we are not going to get into in this call. But as you can see, we are already demonstrating through our guidance and what we will be booking through FY 2027, significant value creation coming through, which will be cash backed.
Thank you. The next question is a follow-up question from Suraj Nebhani. Suraj, please go ahead.
Thank you. Just one quick question on the investment management fee streams. Tarun, I think you highlighted on growth, 25% per annum growth over the last few years. How should we think about further capital partnerships potential? Going back to the previous question as well, is it primarily in the data center space, or there's potential for more capital partnerships in other parts of the business as well?
Hi, Suraj. Thanks for the question. It's Kylie here. You can see capital partnerships is very much part of our strategy, and we welcomed three new partners onto the platform this year. We also now have partners across all of our sectors, and we expect to do a combination of growing those partnerships within the existing sectors, and new partnerships as well. Of course, data centers will be a big part of that.
Thank you. That's the last question we have time for today. I'll now hand back to Tarun for closing remarks.
Thank you. Thank you for joining the call, and we will finish it here. We are looking forward to seeing you all on the roadshow over coming days and weeks. Good morning, and thank you.
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