Welcome to The GPT Group 2026 interim results. Following the formal presentation, there will be a Q&A session for investors and analysts. Participants can ask live audio questions during today's call. To ask a live audio question, press the request to speak button at the top of the broadcast window. The broadcast will be replaced by the audio question screen. Use the dial-in number and access PIN provided to ask your question via the phone. Alternatively, for those on a home or personal network, you can ask your questions via the web by pressing join queue. If prompted, select allow in the pop-up to grant access to your microphone. If you have any issues using the platform, dial-in details can also be found on the homepage under asking audio questions. The audio queue is now open. I will now hand over to Russell Proutt, Chief Executive Officer.
Good morning to everyone who has joined the call today. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which our business operates. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and honor our responsibility for country, culture, and community in the places we create and how we do business. In the first half of 2026, capital markets were volatile, but property fundamentals were sound, and it was those fundamentals that underpinned our earnings growth. Funds from operations was AUD 338.8 million, representing an increase of 5% on the first half of 2025. Excluding trading profits, which are no longer included in our FFO calculation, this earnings growth was 8.3%.
We also continue building our investment management platform, ending the period at AUD 41.6 billion of assets under management, an increase of AUD 1.8 billion or 4.6%, reflecting the confidence of our partners in GPT to invest capital. In terms of the GPT platform, at AUD 41.6 billion of AUM, we operate at scale across three of the largest and most investable property sectors in Australia, being retail, office, and logistics. That scale gives us the economies to invest in depth of capability in each of these sectors, and the expertise that optimizes performance at both the asset and the portfolio level. We will continue to grow with our existing partners and introduce new institutional investors to the platform. Turning to our strategy. Our strategic pillars are unchanged. During the first half of the year, we added to our depth of capability by investing in our people and operating structure.
We stayed true to our investment discipline, using our research and analytics to find, underwrite, and act on opportunities where we see value across sectors. We invested alongside our partners, ensuring our interests are aligned with theirs. While we always seek to improve how we operate, these pillars will continue to be the bedrock of how we allocate capital. Moving forward, what did that look like in the first half? We delivered at the asset level with leasing activity resulting in like-for-like NPI growth of 5.8% and high occupancy levels across the portfolio. We created value through targeted development projects in each of our sectors, including the Rouse Hill Town Centre, 51 Flinders, and Kemps Creek. We raised and invested capital, including the AUD 697 million raised by our Shopping Centre Fund and the AUD 1.2 billion investment in acquiring the Sunshine and Macarthur assets.
Having a clear strategy has shaped where we put our resources, and it shows in our performance in the half. I will now hand over to our Chief Financial Officer, Merran Edwards.
Thank you, Russell, and good morning, everyone. Starting with our group financial performance on page eight, we have delivered 6% growth in our investment portfolio for the period. Our retail investment properties delivered like-for-like growth of 4.6%, driven by rent reviews and positive leasing spreads. Headline net property income was 1.1% lower, reflecting the strategic sell-down of assets into our funds, which released capital for redeployment into higher return opportunities. Our office investment properties delivered like-for-like growth of 8%, with headline growth of 5.7%. Our logistics investment properties delivered like-for-like growth of 4% from positive leasing spreads and structured rent reviews. On a headline basis, planned divestments into our co-investment partnerships reduced net property income by 10.8%, with proceeds recycled into higher returning opportunities. Co-investment net income increased 42.4%, primarily driven by the Grosvenor Place partnership.
Management operations earnings grew as new assets came under management, partly offset by a lower GWOF contribution, resulting in headline growth of 2.5%. Net finance costs of AUD 113.4 million were broadly flat, with a higher average drawn debt balance offset by a 34 basis point reduction in our weighted average cost of debt. Corporate costs reflect the full year run rate of our strategic investment in talent and performance-based compensation. Overall, this delivered AUD 338.8 million in funds from operations, up 5% from 2025 or 8.3% when excluding trading profits. AFFO of AUD 263.4 million was up 2.3%, reflecting office leasing capital in the half. We continue to expect full year maintenance and leasing CapEx of approximately AUD 170 million, in line with guidance.
We declared a distribution of AUD 0.1225 per unit for the half year, which is equivalent to 96% of free cash flow, within our target range of 95%-105%. Our statutory net profit after tax was AUD 400.1 million, reflecting positive revaluation gains across the investment portfolio. Turning now to our financial position on page nine, which remains strong and flexible, with net tangible assets per security up from AUD 5.53 to AUD 5.61. Borrowings remained broadly flat over the half, having increased in late 2025 to fund strategic transaction and development activity. We continue to take a disciplined approach to capital management, with net gearing of 31.5% within our target range of 25%-35%, and with material headroom to our 50% covenant. We have AUD 1 billion of liquidity with no unfunded capital commitments, and we continue to maintain our A2 Moody's and A- S&P ratings.
We've been proactive in managing our debt position, extending facilities and increasing hedging to 74% of average drawn debt in 2026, and 60% in 2027. This disciplined approach has improved our debt maturity profile, with our weighted average cost of debt at 5% at 30 June, down 34 basis points from 5.3% at the end of 2025. I will now pass to Mark Harrison for the investments update.
Thank you, Merran, and good morning everyone. Our investment portfolio continued its positive momentum, increasing in value by AUD 45 million or 0.3% to AUD 16.3 billion for the six-month period. Capital metrics remain well anchored. The portfolio weighted average capitalization rate and discount rate have remained stable for the half and consistent with prior periods, valuation gains continued to be largely driven by income growth. Across all three sectors, market fundamentals remain supportive, and the stability of our capital metrics through the half gives us confidence in the quality and pricing of the portfolio. Turning to our investment activity on page 12, in the half, we executed AUD 1.7 billion of gross transactions across The GPT Group, demonstrating the depth of our investment capability.
Total acquisitions of AUD 1.2 billion were underpinned by strategic investment opportunities, headlined by GWSCF securing 50% interests in two of the country's leading shopping centers, a AUD 622 million investment in Sunshine Plaza, and a AUD 568 million investment in Macarthur Square. Tightly held retail assets of this nature rarely come to market, and these transactions demonstrate our origination and execution capability, while further strengthening GWSCF's portfolio composition. Divestments of AUD 400 million reflected our ongoing portfolio curation, including the strategic divestment of 750 Collins Street in Melbourne, driving enhanced returns and providing liquidity for GWOF investors. We also have additional assets under review for our sector agnostic value add partnership, and we look forward to updating the market as these progress. On page 13, we outline how our aligned partnering strategy continues to resonate with investors, headlined by the successful oversubscribed equity raise for GWSCF.
Consistent with our strategy, GPT aims to co-invest 20%-50% alongside our partners. Across our AUD 13.4 billion pooled funds, GPT is the largest investor with a AUD 900 million co-investment in GWSCF and a AUD 1.3 billion co-investment in GWOF, providing strong alignment and driving investment performance. Beyond the pooled funds, we have invested capital of AUD 1.8 billion in our AUD 4.1 billion partnerships, aligned with our capabilities across office, retail, logistics, and purpose-built student accommodation. Pleasingly, the performance of our pooled funds speak for itself. GWOF has outperformed the office index over one, three and five years, while GWSCF has outperformed the retail index over every time period since inception. Our focus remains on positioning GPT as the leading diversified investment manager in Australia, delivering exceptional value, innovation, and sustainable growth for our security holders and investor partners.
Turning to sustainability, our commitment remains to deliver sustainable long-term value across our owned and managed assets. We continue to deliver market leading outcomes, and all of our ESG activities are aligned with our strategy to optimize asset performance and enhance our competitive positioning. I will now hand to Chris Barnett, our Head of Retail, for an update on our retail business.
Thank you, Mark, and good morning everyone. GPT's retail business continues to perform, delivering strong results for the half, supported by the quality of our portfolio, the scale of our platform, and the continued healthy demand from our retail partners. Our retail platform has expanded further and comprises 18 owned or managed assets with AUD 18.2 billion under management today. The quality of our portfolio when measured on a market value per square meter basis is market leading and one of the reasons why our platform consistently outperforms our peers. Our portfolio remains weighted to Australia's largest and fastest growing catchments, with record visitations nearing 250 million customers a year. Turning to slide 17, where our investment portfolio has delivered like-for-like income growth of 4.6% for the half. This result was underpinned by strong rental growth and being able to deliver our 14th consecutive quarter of positive leasing spreads.
Our leasing team has again produced excellent results with portfolio occupancy improving to 99.8%. Our deal volumes for the half were up 11%, and for those deals completed, our leasing spreads were up 6.6%, which is a meaningful step up on the 4.2% achieved a year ago. This is a clear indication of the strength of our retail demand for spaces within our centers. All deals completed during the half were structured with fixed base rents and annual increases averaging 4.8%. Holdovers have reduced to 3.8% of base rent, down from 5.2%, again reflecting the depth of that demand. Turning to sales, where total center turnover grew 4% over the 12 months to June, with total specialties up 4.2%. Specialty sales productivity has now grown to over AUD 14,000 per square meter, which continues to support the leasing outcomes I have just described.
Within the half itself, we continue to see the recent trend over the past few years where the first quarters outperform the second quarter. Total center sales grew 4.9% in the first quarter, ending the half up 3.5%, which is an improvement on this time last year. Finally, turning to slide 18, where we expect to see retail sales to continue to grow throughout 2026. With limited new retail supply coming to the market, we expect this to underpin further rental growth and sustained high occupancy across the portfolio. The quality of our portfolio and the scale of our platform will continue to deliver strong leasing and asset management outcomes for both GPT and our capital partners. Our development pipeline remains a significant driver for future growth.
The Rouse Hill Town Centre development is fully leased and ahead of program, and we are excited to launch that project in October this year. At Melbourne Central, construction has commenced on the AUD 170 million expansion, with completion expected in the first half of 2028. Beyond these projects, we will continue to leverage GPT's development capability to unlock a further AUD 1 billion of projects for our funds and mandate partners. Our assets are in great shape and the quality of our portfolio and operating platform remains well positioned for further growth. I will now hand you to Matt for the office sector update.
Thank you, Chris, and good morning everyone. The GPT office platform delivered another strong operating result in the first half of 2026, extending the momentum established last year, supported by the continued recovery across Australian CBD office markets. Our platform remains well positioned to take advantage of this market recovery, given the quality of the portfolio, our diversified capital sources, and team capability. GPT's recent acquisition of Grosvenor Place in Sydney has seen early success with over 9,200 sq m of new leases executed since settlement, with half of these transactions to new tenants. Targeted capital investment is currently underway in the building to bring leasing product to market and reposition the building within its competitive set. Our conviction behind this acquisition has already been rewarded with positive net revaluation gain achieved since settlement.
The GPT Wholesale Office Fund's 51 Flinders Lane development in Melbourne's east reached practical completion during the half, with our first tenant moving in this September. The building is currently 39% committed, with positive occupier interest. Turning to page 21, the office portfolio has achieved like-for-like net property income growth of 8%, well above pre-COVID levels, driven by structured rent increases and positive leasing spreads. 78,600 sq m of new leasing, including heads of agreement, was secured across 71 transactions during the period. Lease renewals made up a large share of this activity, with 80% of these tenants taking either the same or more space, a clear sign of confidence they have in their long-term space footprint. We welcomed 31 new tenants during the half, and four existing tenants expanded their national footprint with us. Occupancy finished the half at 92.1%, with positive leasing spreads of 4.7% recorded.
Incentives continue to tighten for high-quality buildings in the strongest precincts. Looking ahead for the remainder of 2026, we remain focused on reducing current vacancy across the portfolio and addressing longer dated forward expiries occurring in 2027 and 2028. Turning to page 22, we expect leasing momentum for prime assets to keep building as supply tightens in key submarkets, driving face rental growth and further leasing incentive compression. Renewed levels of investor interest in the Australian office market and increased transaction volumes will support active portfolio curation, allowing us to concentrate capital in the eastern seaboard CBD markets where our conviction is highest. We continue to actively pursue capital partnerships that will broaden our existing investor base and grow the platform.
As employers seek to leverage high quality and innovative workplaces to attract knowledge workers, our targeted approach to fostering community, occupier experience, and wellness across the portfolio will support tenant retention and attraction, driving outperformance for investors. I will now pass to Chris Davis to present the logistics result.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning everyone. Our logistics platform delivered strong results in the half, with assets under management of AUD 5 billion across 1.3 million square meters. The platform is made up of our AUD 3.5 billion directly held portfolio, alongside an investment management component of AUD 1.2 billion of partnerships and AUD 0.3 billion in mandates.
Growing this is a key focus, which we achieve through targeted asset acquisitions and the creation of new stabilized and development products. The majority of our portfolio has been originated from our pipeline and is weighted to the eastern seaboard, with Sydney making up half of AUM. Given our weighting to Australia's deepest logistics markets, we're well-placed to grow alongside our customers, providing real estate solutions to meet their supply chain needs. Across our AUD 3 billion pipeline, we're hitting key project milestones, capturing value from in-house development capability and adding quality and scale to the platform. Now on page 25. Our investment portfolio performed well with like-for-like income growth of 4%, driven by a combination of leasing outcomes and structured rent increases. Occupancy remains high at 99%, and the weighted average lease expiry has extended to 4.9 years.
Leasing of 100,000 sq m has been completed in the half, doubling the volume in the same period last year. These deals capture income upside with face leasing spreads averaging 38%. Activity was weighted to Sydney, making up 60% of volume, with sizable rent reversion achieved. Leasing has also meaningfully reduced our near-term expiry profile, with 2026 expiring at 2.5% and 2027 at 7.8%. We continue to proactively engage with our customers ahead of upcoming expiries, and that momentum has carried into the second half. Turning to the drivers of future growth on page 26. Occupiers are favoring quality, with prime grade space capturing 77% of take-up over the past year against a long-term average of 58%. Our modern well-located portfolio is capturing this demand with 65,000 sq m of leasing completed through July.
We also see further upside, with 40% of leases expiring to the end of 2029 and the portfolio at least 10% under rented. Coupled with this demand, a reduction in speculative supply will reinforce market rental growth as vacancy stabilizes and tightens. Logistics platform growth will be delivered through activated development pipeline with the Asahi pre-lease at Deer Park in Melbourne underway and three facilities completing at Kemps Creek in Western Sydney in the second half. Two of these three facilities have already been leased. That success underpinned our decision to commence a further stage of the estate later this year, along with an infill project in Sydney. The scale of our directly held portfolio also provides the opportunity to seed assets to form new partnerships and investment products, scaling the platform while maintaining focus on driving quality earnings from our investments.
I will now hand back to Russell for his closing remarks.
Thank you, Chris. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we are affirming our full year guidance for FFO of AUD 0.354 per security, which represents 4% growth on 2025 reported earnings and 5.7% growth when excluding trading profits. We are also affirming our distribution guidance of AUD 0.245 per security for the year. As shown in today's presentation, GPT has a strong foundation and real momentum, and we will continue to create long-term value for our security holders and partners. We will set ambitious goals and pursue them with clear intent. We will continue to build our capabilities and expertise, and we will remain disciplined in our capital allocation decisions. I want to thank everyone on today's call and our people, partners and security holders, all of whom are critical to the success reflected in today's results. I will now hand over to the operator for questions.
All right, great. Then just on 51 Flinders Lane, you mentioned it's 39% committed today. I'd just be interested to hear how you're thinking that number's going to evolve over the next 6- 12 months, and then just any comments around inquiry levels on the.
-levels of in that eastern core part of the Melbourne CBD, particularly for those prime buildings like 51 Flinders Lane. When I look at the occupancy for 51 Flinders Lane, as you mentioned, we've got occupancy of around 39%. This building was always going to be a post PC let up, just given the nature of that building. When I look at active inquiry, we've got roughly 23% of available NLA with RFP currently issued, and with good inquiry on top of those RFP issued. So we're looking at tracking an uplift in that commitment level between now and 31 December.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Adam Calvetti from Bank of America. Adam, please go ahead.
Hi, Russell and team. You mentioned at the full year 2025 result that you're talking to a series of new investors in opportunities across all sectors. Can you just give an update on where you are in some of the other sectors outside of retail?
Yeah, sure. Well, obviously retail's been very active with the shops fundraise and continues to be active. It's an area we see a lot of opportunity and a lot of interest from investors. We've obviously, on the office side, been focused on the GWOF fund and addressing redemption requests, as well as looking at the long-term strategy for GWOF, which was restructured last year. We're also looking at possibly launching a few new products in that sector in the second half of this year and into next year. Finding most of the interest in the office sector coming from offshore at this stage, but seeing some interesting inquiry domestically as well. Then logistics, as Chris said, we have very strong balance sheet holdings and a couple partnerships with QuadReal.
We're looking at a couple options around development partnerships in that sector, but those will probably be either later this year or early into next year. I would say, though, there's a lot of discussions with both existing investors and new investors. However, some of these take time to get the structure right and the product right for them. But it is active across all three sectors.
Okay, amazing. Thanks for that. Then just on Kemps Creek, so those two assets now are fully leased. Are you able to give some color on what the expected yield on cost is?
Look, not specifically for those projects, but generally we're in the range of 6%-6.5%, just depending on the sub-market. But we're seeing strong inquiry for those assets at the moment.
Okay, perfect. One more quick one from me. Just on portfolio curation, especially in the office market, you mentioned you're going to be curating towards markets outside of the eastern seaboard. Can you just give some color on what those sub-markets are?
Adam, it's Mark. So obviously, as part of the GWOF liquidity program we've undertaken to provide liquidity back to investors. We see that coming across core eastern markets in terms of divesting assets to repatriate capital back to investors. But at this stage, we're not looking to expand outside of the major CBD capital city sub-markets across our office investments.
Thank you. The next question is from Tom Bodor from Jarden. Tom, please go ahead.
Good morning, Russell, Merran, and team. Thanks for taking a question. I'm just interested in your asset values, which were relatively stable. Cap rates were also very stable, but you saw pretty strong levels of like-to-like rental growth. So just would be interested in understanding why you didn't see that rental growth flow through to asset values.
Yeah. Thanks, Tom. It is Mark. So obviously pleasing to see our investment strategy continue to be driven by income growth. Really, it is just a lag from leasing incentives and CapEx that is treated below the line by the valuers. So, a bit of offset to the income growth that we saw through below-the-line adjustments.
Sure. That would make sense for office, but logistics and retail saw, I think, 4%-odd rental growth. This is a similar story there. Is it incentive driving that in those sectors as well?
It is incentives and capital expenditures. Some of the assets in our retail and logistics books have had life cycle CapEx undertaken, and that was part of the offset as well.
Okay, thanks very much. Then maybe just another one on developments and hurdle rates. Strategically, just be interested in understanding how you are thinking about your hurdle rates in light of higher funding costs and higher cost of capital. Where do you see yield on costs needing to be? I think on a previous question, you sort of talked to 6%-6.5%. Are you expecting to continue to be in that range, or do you need them to be higher to commit to future projects?
Yeah. Thanks, Tom. It's Mark again. I'd say all of our investments in capital allocation is driven by our capital allocation framework. We're not only looking at the yield on cost as a spot metric, but also where we think the forward IRR is relative to our internal hurdle rates. As Chris touched on, for logistics, we're seeing those between 6% and 6.5%. More broadly, we're sitting anywhere between 6% and 7% for yield on cost across the sectors. I would think about it as being more of an individual capital allocation consideration than a homogenous benchmark that we look at.
Thank you. Our next question is from Simon Chan from Morgan Stanley. Simon, please go ahead.
Okay. Hey, good morning. I was wondering if Chris Barnett can walk us through Rouse Hill Town Centre. He mentioned it got leased up ahead of time, ahead of schedule. How does the returns now look like compared to feasibility or original commencement?
Yeah. Simon, thanks for the question. I know you have an interest in Rouse Hill, and you'll be proud to know that it is in great shape at the moment. The center's fully leased. It's interesting, if you review the tenancy mix that we took into the project to what we ended up with, I think we'll end up with a superior product. Really, we'll hit the market in particular for the gaps in apparel that we had, dining, entertainment, and connection into community. We're very proud of the product. We had estimated that we would have a yield on cost of about 6.5%, and we've been able to improve upon that, and very much looking forward to its launch on October 29 this year.
How should we think about the rental income to come in? Like full year impact straight away, the 6.5% +, or is there going to be a staggered profile?
I think all of our projects have some degree of stabilization, but we are fully leased. We expect to be fully open on the day. We have around about six tenancies that we have taken out of the existing center to put into the project. They have now also been backfilled, but there will be a slight delay of their income commencement. We think that we will be receiving full income in that asset by about March 2027.
Great. Cool. My next question is more of a high-level one. Russell, you have been there for two years now, right? You have thrown up a lot of stuff for us to think about. WIFF at one stage, listed retail fund at another. I guess to date, all you have done out of anything that is sizable is upsizing current products, right? Like GWSCF, you have done a great job there. QuadReal relationship, you have expanded that. Should we expect going forward more expansion of existing relationships? Or those new products you talked about, like WIFF and listed retail fund, are they still on the agenda?
Look, I think we are open, Simon, to all different forms of style of investment, sectors that we have expertise in, and form of capital. I will not take exception to the word only in that statement, because I think we have made actually tremendous progress in the business. I think it goes to where I think what we have shown is tremendous discipline. We have only pursued opportunities that make sense for our business and for our partners. If I look at the shops fund that we have not only restructured, but modernized the liquidity mechanism and seen more than AUD 1 billion of capital flow through both primary as well as secondary clearances of trades, while maintaining the fund has been maintained as number one in its sector, I think that is a tremendous success. We focused our resources where we think it is the biggest impact.
From a profitability standpoint, having many or more funds or platforms is not necessarily the long-term best approach to raising profitability and return on capital. Actually expanding existing platforms and having flagship funds and partnerships is probably the best way. I would also look at other areas we have expanded existing relationships, like you say, like CSC. I think that is a testament to the quality of those relationships. I would also say that the funds raised was about 50% new investors and 50% existing investors. Again, I think it is a success across the board. I think what you do see with our style and approach is that you will hear from us when we finish things and not in anticipation, so we have maximum flexibility and can pursue things that make sense for everybody involved.
Like I have said before, I think, to you and others, expect a handful of significant events throughout the course of the year as well as results, but otherwise we will be busy progressing our strategy.
Thank you. Our next question is from Solomon Zhang from UBS. Solomon, please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Thanks for your time. Just maybe back on office. So 92.1% occupancy. It was down, I guess a touch half and half, but slight quarter-on-quarter. Just wanted to get your thoughts on when you expect the trough occupancy to have landed, knowing you have about 4% expires in the remainder of this year and then 10% expiring in FY 2027.
Yeah. Thanks for the question. It's Matt here again. I think just a couple of call-outs. When you actually look at that June 2025 occupancy number of 94.4% and compare that to the June 2026 of 92.1%, that 92.1% includes Grosvenor . When you actually strip that number out, you get to occupancy which is pretty much comparable to same time last year. Just in relation to future leasing, I think we've got roughly 10% of the portfolio expiring this calendar year. We've made some really solid inroads in relation to that expiry in the first half. We've addressed roughly 60% of that vacancy. That being said, we've still got some work to do in the second half, but we think that there's some good momentum coming in that second half.
When you actually look at inspections for the first half, we actually did more inspections in the first half of this calendar year than we did in all of 2025. We'd like to convert some of that now into active leasing over the course of the next six months.
Right. Would you say that the macro disruption in first half of this calendar year maybe impacted that conversion rate despite those inspections being strong?
Well, I think one of the key takeaways from the market at the moment is just that long lead time, from when tenants enter the market to when they ultimately convert. That being said, a lot of tenants have generally looked through that geopolitical volatility and are still being actively signing leases because at the end of the day, leases still expire. You can't defer the expiry. We've been progressively working through that, as I mentioned. As I said, we've also got a lot of wood to chop in the second half, but we are seeing that good progress.
Thanks. Just a final question from me. Just looking at slide six, just on the Asian term loan for the shops fund. Merran, could you just comment on pricing for that and just give us an update on your cost of debt profiles in the various wholesale funds and how that might evolve over the balance of this year into next?
Sure, Solomon. I will not quote directly the pricing, that is not public. What I can tell you is that that was a very competitively priced Asian term loan that we up-sized. We also increased the tenor of obviously the debt within that portfolio and increased the diversification of debt in the Shopping Centre Fund. So it is a great outcome for the Shopping Centre Fund. The cost of debt, the weighted average cost of debt in that fund is 5.3% for the period. The office fund is 5%.
Thank you. Our next question is from James Druce from CLSA. James, please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning, Russell and team. Just a first question around sort of the cap rates on your terminal values. I am hearing that industrial underwrites have up to 150 basis points of cap rate compression in the terminal. I am just wondering how your portfolio compares.
James, it's Mark. We're not seeing that level of terminal capitalization rate compression. We're hardly seeing any in underwrites in the investments that we're looking at or that we're comparing across the market. I think consistent with what you've heard from us over recent times, across all the sectors, we continue to see a flight to quality. From a logistics perspective, a lot of the valuation movement that we've seen has been predominantly leasing driven, where you've seen renewals and new lease terms firming cap rates. As we said, across the board, we've seen valuations remain largely stable and driven by income fundamentals.
Okay. So what sort of compression do you have in your terminals for your industrial portfolio?
Zero.
Okay. That's clear. I'm not sure if you gave this number, what was the CapEx for Grosvenor this year?
Yeah, so we previously reported that CapEx for Grosvenor for our 50% in year one's roughly AUD 30 million-AUD 35 million. We're about 1/3 through that at the moment.
Okay. That's clear. Just one more from me. In industrial incentives, are you seeing those peaking at the moment? Or can you just give us a steer on how you're seeing incentives in the industrial market, please?
Yeah, James, it's Chris Davis here. Our incentives across our portfolio have been stable, sitting at around 20%. In terms of the broader market, we're seeing Melbourne in that mid to high 20s and Sydney around 20%. It's overall fairly stable.
Thank you. Our next question is from David Pobucky from Macquarie Group. David, please go ahead.
Morning, Russell, Merran, and team. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to come back to office, if I could, please, and your view on office incentives over the next 12 months. Are you seeing enough of an improvement in office leasing demand and your view on incentives to call a genuine recovery in office or is it still largely confined to prime assets and specific sub-markets?
Yeah. It's Matt here again. When you look at incentives across the country, generally we've seen a stabilization of those incentives over the course of the last 12 months. When you look at the go forward, ultimately those better quality assets in those better quality sub-markets, we're generally seeing a downward pressure on those incentives. When I look in particular where we're leading the charge, definitely Brisbane, an area we're seeing some good inroads there. Same with Sydney Financial District, but also over the course of the last 12 months, we've seen that now start to permeate into the midtown market and also the Western Corridor market.
Thank you. If we think about The GPT Group's main tenants, CapEx, and tenant incentives as a whole, would it be fair to say that FY 2026 will be the peak for maintenance CapEx and NPI?
I can take that, David. It's Merran here. Yeah, I think that's correct. We'll start to see them taper off into 2027, and we can already see the split between fit out and rent free. It's currently 40/60 in our 2026 numbers. But the current office deals we're talking to at the moment, that fit out rent free has changed a little bit and it's 35/65, which also helps.
Just the last one on GWOF. 750 Collins was sold, so just curious to understand what's been satisfied to date for the liquidity event, what's left to go, and if there's any commentary on further asset sales that you can provide. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, David. It's Mark. We've satisfied about 18% of the liquidity request to date. As we've disclosed to GWOF investors, we'll go through a strategic assessment of which assets we think are right to sell in the market. We've flagged specific assets, which we won't disclose on this call. But we have a very particular curation strategy identified, which you'll see traction on over the next 12 months.
Thank you. Our next question is from Richard, from JPMorgan. Richard, please go ahead.
Russell. Well, thanks, Russell. Just interested, obviously, the business model is evolving. Just wondering whether your thoughts on retaining at least 20% and up to 50% of the equity across your co-investments is still the right number.
Look, I think it is, actually. I think we're finding that aligned partnering concept and the fact that any fees earned or generated are complementary to the return on capital being invested, and really ensures that we are focused on where we're investing our capital first is resonating with investors. But also, given our equity base of about AUD 10.5 billion- AUD 16 billion of balance sheet assets, we actually have a lot of flexibility around that, and can execute against that strategy before it becomes constraining in any way. So I think for those two reasons, you'll see us continue along those lines. But we also still also have a mandates business, which we expect will continue to grow with the existing partners, but where we have zero capital invested.
Again, I think it is the right strategy for what we are doing and trying to execute, and it is working in the market and being well-received by investors.
Okay, thank you. Just a quick question just for Chris. Just wondering if you can give us some color on retail sales in the months of June and July, please.
Yep. Richard, happy to do that. We ended the year off at a half pretty solid. Total Centre's up 4%, Total Specialty's up 4.2%. But for the half, both Total Centre and Total Specialty were up 3.5%. We have not signed July off yet, but it is looking that Total Specialties will be probably around where we ended up in the second quarter of that, so around about 2%-3% up.
Okay, so no noticeable drop-off in June or July?
No.
No. Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Claire McKew from Green Street. Claire, please go ahead.
Hi all. Just a quick one from me on scaling up the funds management business. How should we think about the trajectory of corporate costs and when do you expect to see some operating leverage come through?
I think you'll see some leverage coming through in the second half and into next year and onwards. We really have the scale of operations at the corporate level we need to grow the business. You've seen some increase in the corporate costs year-on-year as we've had the full run rate of the entire team in. But we have a full CIO division now with research, cap trans, and corporate development. Each of the sectors are well tooled up now to support that growth. So we should start to see some of that operating leverage come through, particularly in existing vehicles. We do, as you know, take a little bit back from the restructuring the GWOF and having to deal with some of the redemptions. But on a net growth basis, there should be operating leverage starting to come through.
Okay. And then maybe just one other question just surrounding the momentum on the fundraising pipeline. Have you seen investors that you've been in discussion with sort of shifting their return hurdles or underwriting requirements across any or all of the sectors, just in light of what we've seen over the last six months, or have expectations been pretty stable?
No, I think what you saw, if you go back to October of last year, things looked like they were really picking up. There was a rate reduction expectation in the market, and then that changed very quickly.
As you know, on the unlisted side, people don't recalibrate their rates of return or benchmark returns very quickly, but they start to shift their decision-making speed and areas of focus. We've seen, and it's really selective depending on where the capital's coming from, whether it's offshore or onshore, if they have strong international presence. Because some, for example, would say they're interested in European retail, which would be of zero interest to someone else. From an Australian point of view, though, it remains incredibly attractive market for Asia Pac region. We're seeing a lot of interest offshore. It has been somewhat narrowed by the Victorian tax policy into really New South Wales and Queensland.
Overall, I would say going into the midway through the first half, we saw people being probably a little more cautious and maybe a little longer in their decision-making, but we've started to see that pick up heading into the second half now. So a little more normalized environment now. But obviously, the macro can change pretty quickly.
Thanks, guys. That's helpful.
Thanks.
The next question is from Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey. Ben, please go ahead.
Russell, thanks. Hi. Thanks for your time. Just a question on the Shopping Centre Fund. Is there further appetite to undertake another capital raising in that vehicle? Could you just clarify the pro forma gearing post-acquisition of Macarthur Square and Sunshine?
Ben, it's Merran. I'll take the pro forma gearing question first. The gearing does go up just after the acquisition of Sunshine and Macarthur to close to 30%.
And then as far as the interest or pursuit of further growth in that fund, I think the fund right now just eclipsed AUD 5 billion of total assets under management. I think we could see that fund being substantially larger, provided there's opportunities in front of it to grow and deliver value for investors. But it's performed extremely well. I think every asset in the fund are assets we manage, we think there is opportunity to grow it further, so we would probably have appetite to raise, subject to investors' support of that.
Great. Thanks for your time.
Thanks, Ben.
The next question is from Callum from Macquarie. Callum, please go ahead.
I think it is me. Hi, Russell and team. Thanks for taking the question. Merran, would you be able to step us through the CapEx commitments that are in the annual report? I think it is AUD 455 million with another AUD 77 million in joint ventures. I think there is AUD 210 million in office particularly. I was just trying to understand what that AUD 210 million relates to.
It is probably Grosvenor. Are you in the actual interim report, Callum?
Yeah.
Sorry, what page are you on?
33.
It will be Grosvenor-
Yeah.
-plus also CapEx commitments for some logistics developments that are also in the pipeline.
How big is the total CapEx expenditure? Because I think Matt said AUD 30 million -AUD 35 million this year. What was the total that you've got?
That's right. It will be similar next year. Most of this, Callum, will be the logistics developments, which will be Kemps Creek and Boundary.
What's the portion of AUD 77 million that sits in a joint venture?
Hey, Callum, why don't we come back to you on that?
Yeah.
You win the prize.
Yeah, no drama.
Page 33, that's an impressive spread.
Callum-
That is my only question. Sorry.
I will break all the CapEx down for you because remembering this is statutory, so some of it is actually accounting treatment, why things sit in certain buckets. We will take you through this in more detail when we have got our 15 minutes with you this afternoon.
Yeah, I was just trying to look at it relative to the development page that you have got. Maybe then just a separate one along the same lines, though. Russell, how do you think about capacity in the business as it stands today, both on balance sheet, but maybe?
Sorry, Callum, it will not.
That's all right. Yes. Sorry.
Why don't I take that one, Callum? We call liquidity availability AUD 1 billion. We've obviously invested the capital in the shops fund. We're dealing with liquidity redemptions in office of our free cash flow. We will need to further release of capital as in line with our strategy. That may involve asset sales and recycling, that may involve creating new partnerships or funds. We do have some additional capacity in the leverage side of things, but I don't think you'll see a material reduction in that AUD 1 billion of liquidity going forward. We can fund our developments. There's nothing in this business that is unfunded. There's nothing in this business that we cannot fund with existing commitments or liquidity. But that's how we'll approach kind of more significant incremental growth would be through attracting new capital to the platform.
Great. Should we expect the gearing's going up as we move into the end of the year?
I wouldn't expect material movements in gearing at all. I think the 25%-35% range and have it hanging around the kind of the low 30% at this point in the cycle is probably the right answer. I think it'd be more around us attracting additional equity capital to the platform.
Thank you. Our next question is from Howard Penny from Citi. Howard, please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the presentation. Just the first question on finance costs moving into FY 2027 and 2028. I know you are not guiding those numbers, but seems like there might be a bit of a step up into FY 2027. Do you think that that could be a headwind to overall growth potentially, or do you think the operational growth could still outpace that to a reasonable positive result?
Hi, Howard, it is Merran. Look, we have still got strong operating growth which should outpace it. Obviously, you can see from our hedging profile, we have still got a fair bit of protection, particularly in 2027. So the rest of 2026, we are 74% hedged at 3.2%. That steps up to 3.6% in 2027, with 60% of our debt drawn hedged. In 2028, we have got 41% hedged at 4.2%. So there is a bit of a headwind there. However, we do think our operational performance will outweigh that.
Right. Thank you very much. It is impressive to see in retail in particular, how things have, the momentum has continued. Lease spreads up to 6.6%, specialty MAT up further to new records. One of the conversations we had with generalists, especially guys following the actual retailers, is talking about how the pressure is impacting retail, and specifically discretionary retail landlords. But the leasing still seems firmly a landlord market. How long do you think that this could continue, and what are those negotiations like?
Howard, it's Chris. Thank you for the question. We're very happy with the leasing spreads at 6.6%, and that is a step up from where we were this time last year. Interestingly enough, if you look where we are across the board, the leasing spreads are really captured in all categories. So we're achieving great spreads in apparel today, in our services, our dining, our homewares, and general retail. I think where the secret sauce in leasing spread sits today is the fact that we're 99.8% occupied. When you sit down with retailers that all have an appetite wanting to continue to grow their business, and in effect, have little option as to new GLA in the market, we've been able to extract. On top of that, you've got like-for-like income growth. We've got fixed 5% escalations.
We're seeing 5% sales growth, positive leasing spreads, and that gives us a really healthy occupancy cost sitting around about 15.8%.
Great. Thank you very much. Then final question from me, it's a bit of an expansion to the Rouse Hill question, but we also visited Macarthur Square and we noticed there was good land there for potential further expansion there. Do you guys have appetite to do further developments on other assets in the short to medium-term horizon?
We're constantly looking at driving value in our assets, and most of our, I think, future growth will come from our development pipeline. When you look at Macarthur in particular, there is a lot of surplus land. I think from our perspective, what we should be doing there is just making sure that we have entitlements to grow highest and best use to develop that land. I'll be honest, I'm not sure if we would become a residential developer, but if it means that we get the entitlements for a proper residential developer to come in to maximize value, we're happy to work with them. Equally, I think it's important for us to state that retail will always be the hero in our future development pipeline.
Thank you. There are no further questions. I will now hand back to Russell.
Well, thank you, everybody, for joining the call this morning, and thank you to the team for delivering such great results.