2024 full year results call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation, followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Scott Pritchard, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Harmony, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2024 annual result briefing for Precinct Properties. I'm joined today by George Crawford, Precinct's Deputy Chief Executive, and Richard Hilder, Precinct's Chief Financial Officer. The agenda for today's call is outlined on page two of the presentation. I'll shortly provide an overview of the highlights of the result before covering off the major themes and reviewing Precinct's strategic progress. I'll then hand over to Richard, who'll detail the financial result before George provides an overview of our capital partnerships and our investment performance. Following that, I'll spend some time on our development progress and offer some concluding comments. And as usual, we will be delighted to answer any of your questions at the conclusion of the call.
We're very pleased with the operational performance over the past twelve months, particularly given the economic environment that we are operating in. Portfolio occupancy remains at elevated levels, with 98% occupancy and a weighted average lease term of 6.6 years. Leasing progress has resulted in very strong growth to our market rents, with leasing spreads of close to 16% across our office portfolio. We have completed One Queen Street, improved our GRESB score, and are today launching a refreshed Precinct brand with the clear intent of utilizing Precinct's brand across our living sector activities. From a financial perspective, we are pleased with the growth in our funds from operations, demonstrating the performance of our underlying portfolio.
As a consequence, and despite considerably higher interest costs, we're very pleased to record NZD 0.0669 per share for our AFFO, and are guiding to a flat dividend for the next financial period. Notably, and as a reflection of the demand from occupiers for our office assets, and directly relating to the leasing transactions completed, we have recorded a relatively minor devaluation of around NZD 100 million, placing our NTA at NZD 1.29. In the period, we have strengthened our balance sheet through refinancing NZD 700 million of debt, secured a NZD 168 million green loan to finance 61 Molesworth Street, completed NZD 150 million of subordinated convertible notes, and sold the Mason Brothers Building in Wynyard Quarter. Overall, it's been an incredibly active period. Moving to the strategic highlights slide.
The achievements over the past twelve months are best categorized as making a deeper commitment to the living sector, particularly in Auckland, and advancing our most significant development at Downtown in Auckland. Having made the decision to establish a joint venture with Tim and Andrew Lamont in 2022, this year we made the decision to consolidate our ownership to 100%, and pleasingly, have retained Tim and Andrew for a minimum of five more years. We have also entered into the student accommodation sector and extended our development pipeline through the acquisition of Dominion and Valley Road, and the conditional announcement today regarding our proposed joint venture with Orams Group. And finally, we are delighted with our progress on Downtown, with our acquisition becoming unconditional during the year. We've also advanced design and have now lodged resource consent.
Perhaps most pleasing has been the selection of Downtown by a major occupier to enter into exclusive negotiations to commit to the project. This occupier is anticipating committing to around 40% of the available office space within the development. Page five sets out a summary of the key themes which we are observing in our markets. Unsurprisingly, the economy is having a more significant impact on the operating environment that we are in. We have observed a material impact on our retail and operating businesses over the second half of the year, with Commercial Bay retail and Generator both being impacted. While those conditions are impacting at-risk revenues, the resultant commencement of interest rate cuts provides some optimism for valuations.
We have seen a stabilization of values in the second half of the year, which provides some comfort that we are now near the bottom of this current valuation cycle. Despite the economy putting the brakes on some parts of the market, we are continuing to see demand for prime grade office space. This demand has led to good growth in market rents, which has assisted in partially mitigating cap rate expansion. A second major theme is the evolving construction market. Following a number of small-scale tenders, which we have completed recently, it is clear that contractors are reducing labor costs, reducing their P&G, and reducing margins to better compete in the current market. We have seen cost reductions of at least 10%, which will assist in any future construction activities.
Consistent with a more competitive market, we have now entered into three separate design build construction contracts, which further supports a more competitive construction market. And finally, following a detailed market process, we are continuing to see elevated levels of demand from capital partners for exposure to the living sector. Our experience in seeking partners for our PBSA developments confirms high levels of demand, which George will touch on shortly. I'd now like to hand over to Rich to take you through the numbers.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. As noted already, Precinct reported a loss for the year of NZD 30.1 million. This compares to a loss of NZD 147 million last year. The main contributor to the loss was the fair value movement in investment properties. This devaluation of around NZD 100 million saw net tangible assets per share reduced NZD0.09- NZD 1.29. Adjusting for the devaluation and other non-cash movements, operating profit before income tax was NZD 103.6 million, which was NZD 1.5 million higher than the previous period. Operating profit before indirect expenses rose NZD 11.6 million and is broken down on the following slide. Funds from operations from directly owned assets increased 5.2%.
However, after adjusting for transactions and developments, investment properties grew by 2.9%. The Auckland office portfolio, which accounts for 60% of portfolio FFO, underpinned the uplift with strong growth. Wellington office was down 3.5% due to lower average occupancy and higher operating expenses. Despite good rental growth, significant rates and insurance increases in recent years have impacted net income. Pleasingly, for the most recent insurance renewal, we have achieved a modest reduction in Wellington premiums. Income from Commercial Bay Retail fell 4%. As mentioned in February, this reflected higher vacancy due to center stabilization, but it has also been impacted by a combination of higher operating expenses and a challenging operating environment for retailers. The next slide provides a breakdown of our key performance measure, AFFO.
As noted, funds from operations from our directly owned assets increased 5.2%, when combined with cash distributions received from Cornerstone Interests. Precinct's income from property investments increased 6.9% for the period. Management services generated NZD 7 million of fees from partnerships and third parties, which contributed 30 basis points to AFFO. As the business grows capital partnerships, the benefits are expected to grow further. Pleasingly, underlying funds from operations, which includes operating businesses, combined with our management business, rose 8.8% to NZD 155.2 million. Despite this strong growth, higher interest and tax expense in the period resulted in flat FFO and AFFO per share. Funds from operations for the period were NZD 0.0722 per share, while adjusted funds from operations were NZD 0.0669 per share.
Slide ten provides a valuation overview. As a result of elevated interest rates, cap rates across the office portfolio softened by around 30 basis points to 5.9%. This resulted in a 3.2% devaluation. Excluding developments and the movement in the right of use asset, the investment portfolio saw a modest 3.6% decrease. In Auckland, the movement in cap rates were partially offset by market rental growth of 5%. However, in Wellington, despite only 20 basis points of cap rate expansion, a similar increase in market rents, higher operating expenses resulted in a devaluation of around 5%. Overall, it has been pleasing to see a stabilization of property valuations in the second half of the financial year. With a lower interest rate environment expected over the near term, this will provide further valuation support.
Moving to capital management. During the period, we secured 40 and 44 Bowen Street in Wellington, disposed Mason Brothers, and issued a $150 million subordinated convertible note. In addition to these initiatives, we secured our first green bank loan and refinanced the remainder of Precinct's bank facilities. Importantly, to mitigate any refinance risk associated with upcoming maturities, Precinct has also secured additional funding to repay these. The business remains well-funded, with a laddered debt maturity profile and a diverse source of funding. Hedging at year-end was 99%. However, average hedging during FY 2025 is expected to be around 85%. Following a competitive refinance and swap restructures, the weighted average debt cost at year-end has marginally improved, despite increasing floating rates.
As at 30 June, gearing is measured under our borrowing covenants, which dis regards subordinated debt as 35% against a covenant of 50%. Over the next 18 months, we will continue to advance other capital management initiatives to ensure we have sufficient balance sheet capacity to execute strategy. Finally, we continue to have confidence in our medium-term earnings and dividend profile. The recent change to remove tax depreciation on structure for commercial properties will reduce earnings by around 4%. However, we will look through any near-term headwinds, given the business is well-positioned for growth and the anticipated benefits we expect from our strategy. Our confidence in the medium term comes from having a well-positioned portfolio with underrenting of 11% and expected annual rent review growth in FY 2025 of 3.7% for 80% of the portfolio.
Further to this, discussions with engaged potential investors, a growth pipeline totaling NZD 3 billion and a more certain interest rate outlook are providing additional confidence. At the core of Precinct's dividend policy is a commitment to provide both a sustainable and stable dividend. Based on this, we are pleased to announce today an FY 2025 dividend of 6.75 cents per share.
... Thank you. I'll now hand over to George.
Thanks, Richard. Good morning, all. Turning to page 14, our capital partnering strategy continues to leverage our platform, market position, and people to create investment performance for our partners, and as a result, generate higher returns on Precinct's equity. The chart on the right-hand side of the page sets out the target returns that we are seeking across a range of investment styles, from core through to development. By investing alongside capital partners, we create alignment, and by being local with deep market knowledge, we aim to provide our partners with superior investment performance. The key objective for Precinct is to drive return on equity, and we can also use our balance sheet more effectively, participating in a greater range of value-add activities alongside partners' capital. On page 15, we've significantly progressed our capital partnering strategy over the last year, particularly in the living sector.
We have moved to 100% ownership of the joint venture we established with Tim and Andrew Lamont. This move ensures that Precinct fully benefits from the value created through our living sector strategy, as well as retaining Tim and Andrew's skills within the business for the next five years. We have also made significant progress in student accommodation in Auckland, a sector which we believe is well-positioned to deliver strong investment returns, with significant growth in export education anticipated. We acquired 256 Queen Street as our first site earlier in the year, and we're pleased to announce today that we're in exclusive negotiations with a preferred capital partner for this strategy. We have also strongly advanced our residential pipeline. We've conditionally acquired a well-located site in Mt Eden, at the junction of Dominion Road and Valley Road.
Turning to page 16, we're excited to be announcing today that we are partnering with Orams Group to develop their site on the western waterfront of Wynyard Quarter. In our view, this is one of the best residential development sites in Auckland and is zoned for greater height than the surrounding sites in this location. Precinct will take a 50% interest in the residential site and has been appointed as development manager to progress this exciting development through design, consenting, pre-sales, financing, and construction. We will also take a 25% interest in the existing Marine Village asset and will commence the small-scale commercial development shown on the right-hand side of the page. The capital needed to complete this commercial development is included in Precinct's total investment of NZD 46 million.
Page 17 outlines that Precinct is well-positioned to further build its capital partnering assets under management, from the current level of NZD 1.6 billion, to realistically be in the range of NZD 4-NZD5 billion. As outlined, we are advanced on two transactions, which are together valued at around NZD 300 million. Downtown Carpark continues to be the most significant pipeline opportunity, with further progress made in the year, which Scott will talk to. However, outside of Downtown Carpark, we have built a substantial pipeline of student accommodation and residential development totaling just under NZD 1 billion, which we anticipate converting over the next two to three years. Importantly, this pipeline has been secured with a careful and structured use of Precinct's balance sheet to minimize the capital outlay prior to construction commencement.
On page 18, over the year, we've continued to successfully advance our legacy residential build-to-sell projects, with existing partners showing confidence in the market recovery through funding Fabric, Domain Collection, and York House to commence construction with limited further pre-sales. We've also taken advantage of market conditions to secure what we believe is the best future residential build-to-sell project pipeline in the Auckland market, which will position us well as residential market conditions improve. Finally, we've identified and executed on the opportunity created by growth and demand for Auckland student accommodation, an opportunity that we're confident will continue to grow. Auckland is increasingly a preferred study location for international students, with government support for expansion and the University of Auckland recording twice the number of applications for available accommodation beds.
Moving to our investment portfolio on page 20, the strength of our assets and occupier preference for quality continues to be reflected in portfolio performance. Rental growth is the key theme, with increased market rentals offsetting cap rate expansion to stabilize our valuations. While we are now 11% under-rented across the portfolio, pleasingly, we are capturing this under-renting with an exceptional 15.9% spread on new leasing, as set out on page 21. Turning to page 22, the themes we are seeing in our portfolio reflect the pronounced two-speed market in Auckland. This trend shows no signs of abating, with vacancy increasing in the secondary market and reducing in the premium market, leading to wide divergence in rental growth between premium and secondary assets.
While in the near term, we expect that a weaker economy will moderate rental growth, the limited new supply outlook and high economic rents required for new developments should ensure that over the longer term, market rental growth is sustained. For Wellington, as we note on page 23, demand in the occupier market is subdued, with the impact of central government spending constraints being felt. However, the new supply outlook remains modest, vacancy is low, and good quality space is in demand. Finally, before I hand back to Scott, on page 24, the Auckland residential market continues to be challenging, but we see the conditions for a market recovery now being put in place. Most importantly, mortgage rates are reduced and are expected to fall further, which will improve affordability. While the significant recent population growth means the pool of potential buyers has increased.
For the mid-market to luxury apartment segment that our strategy targets, the downsizer market is expected to continue to grow from demographic shifts. Thank you, and I'll hand back to Scott.
Thanks, George, and turning to the development section. Page 27 sets out an overview of our development activities, which have occurred in the period. We have completed the Deloitte Centre in Auckland and Bowen House in Wellington. Through the establishment of our residential joint venture, we have now concluded works at Onehunga Mall Club and commenced works at Domain Collection and Fabric. We have established a high-quality residential development pipeline consisting of infill sites, waterfront sites, large-scale city center sites, which present us with a range of opportunities to meet demand into the future, and as previously advised, our clear expectation is that these developments will be completed alongside capital partners, where we expect to see strong demand to co-invest alongside Precinct. Over the page, specific details are provided for each of 61 Molesworth Street in Wellington and Wynyard Quarter in Auckland.
We have two high-quality construction firms delivering these two projects, with LT McGuinness and Hawkins, respectively. Between the two projects, we're over 80% pre-leased, with an average lease term for over 15 years. Page 28 provides an overview of our living sector projects, which are currently underway. The Domain Collection is an office conversion to residential, with main construction well underway, with completion due in early 2026. Fabric Stage Two commenced in October last year, with Kalmar well underway on site. In-ground works are largely complete, and completion for the project is expected also in 2026. Finally, we are pleased to have recently entered into a new design build construction contract with Kalmar for York House in Parnell, Auckland. York House is a small-scale luxury project, which unlocks incredible views of Auckland's harbor. This project is expected to complete in 2027.
The following page provides an update on the downtown development opportunity. We are thrilled to have concluded negotiations in the period and for the agreement to have become fully unconditional. The deposit has been paid, with settlement due in December 2025 . Progress during the period includes the approval by Eke Panuku for our reference design, lodging resource consent, and entering into exclusive negotiations with a large-scale occupier for up to 40% of the available office space. It is our expectation that construction works will commence for the first stage of this project in 2026 , and that discussions with capital partners will now get underway. Page 30 sets out Precinct's replenished development pipeline, which presents some incredible opportunities for Precinct to execute on. These include Orams Commercial, which is expected to get underway imminently.
Freyberg House in Wellington, which presents an opportunity for a refurbished, seismically resilient office scheme. 256 Queen Street, with construction set to start early next year. Dominion and Valley, a large-scale residential scheme, where resource consent is due to be lodged shortly. Wynyard West, announced today, which presents a two-stage, large-scale residential project on the Auckland waterfront. And finally, to complete our $3 billion development pipeline, is the Downtown Project, which presents a truly transformational project for Precinct and for Auckland City. The next slide sets out the timing, durations, and participation levels for each of the developments. Importantly, this slide also sets out the composition of these projects, which generally consist of around 40% commercial office, 40% build-to-sell residential, and the remainder is student accommodation. Now, turning to the summary slide.
There remains little doubt that the economy is under considerable strain, and it is placing significant pressure on those businesses subject to variable revenues. Demand has certainly reduced for our retail and operating businesses, particularly over the second half of this year. While these impacts are real, the recent cut to New Zealand's OCR and the corresponding narrative suggesting that there are further cuts to come provides some optimism that inflation has been managed and that further rate cuts are likely. These cuts, particularly in wholesale interest rate markets, which we have observed, have provided some stability to valuations and will assist in future years' earnings. While the environment is tough, we are thrilled to have positioned our business to be able to take advantage of the next economic upswing, as demand for residential housing will inevitably return.
Based on this confidence, and based on the ongoing performance of our own portfolio, and despite the removal of depreciation as a tax deduction, we have great delight in advising the market today that we will be maintaining our dividend at NZD 0.0675 per share, due to the confidence that we have in our strategy and the confidence we have in our midterm earnings outlook.
...That brings us to the end of the presentation, and we would be delighted to take any questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Bianca Fledderus from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. First of all, just a couple of questions on PBSA. So with the exclusive negotiations with a PBSA partner, how long after confirming that partner do you expect you will start developing there? And then also this partner, will they be potentially interested in future PBSA projects as well?
Hi, Bianca. George here. We expect from here to be designing 256 Queen Street through to the end of the year. And then be entering into construction contract for commencement of construction, probably early Q2 in 2025. And then in terms of further interest and further development or further investment alongside us, yes, absolutely. It's a capital partner that's interested in the strategy. And you know, we see that as being potential for around 2,000 beds in Auckland. So we would expect there to be further projects within that capital partnership.
Okay. Thank you. And then the confidential PBSA opportunity on slide 31, when do you think you may be able to update the market on that?
Probably through the end of the year or early next year. At the interims, we'll provide an update as to how that's progressing. That's a site which we have under option through to the middle of next year, and that gives us time to advance design and understand the cost to construct and secure a capital partner for that site.
Okay, thank you. And then just moving on to the resi strategy. So you mentioned the continued challenging conditions in the Auckland resi market, which is probably not a huge surprise, but could you give a bit of an update on how sales are progressing at the Onehunga Mall Club and pre-sales for some of your other Auckland resi projects?
Hi, Bianca, Scott here. Yeah, look, it's still pretty quiet out there. We're sort of measuring inquiry levels, which are definitely starting to elevate. But got to be honest, it's coming off a really slow base. So, there's been, you know, less than a handful of contracts that have been floating around on Onehunga Mall Club since completion. But, you know, with the kind of increase in inquiry levels, you know, we do expect that, you know, we'll start to see more and more contracts floating around, which is encouraging.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. And then lastly, just quickly, yeah, obviously very pleasing to see the weighted average cost of debt fall during the year. Could you provide some color around what you're expecting there for FY 2025?
Hi, Bianca, Rich here. Yeah, it be largely unchanged. It be. I think we've hit our peak weighted average cost of debt. So I think that will be given the hedging of 85%, and that expectation of fallen rates, it'll probably be in and around that level.
Okay, great. Thanks. That's all for me.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nick Mah, from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just on the FY 2025 dividend, can you just confirm that, yeah, the sort of commentary around confidence in the medium term suggests that the 2025 payout will be somewhat in excess of AFFO for the year?
Yeah. Morning, Nick. Yeah, look, there's a chance we may slightly overpay on our divvy in the next 12 months. We're seeing really good, you know, performance out of the portfolio, and we're obviously getting more momentum into the management company. But we, you know, we may slightly overpay depending on how well we go in the next twelve months.
No, that's fair enough. And just in terms of the cost side, it's obviously down in terms of the way it's reported. Is there any sort of movement of those costs to some of the external capital or some recognition changes there? Just trying to understand how that's sort of gone down 24% year- on- year.
I can get into the detail after the call. It has stayed largely flat. I think the overall cost has been about NZD 20 million, 20.2 last year, 20.3 this year. There is slightly more being capitalized to feasibility costs that's going through, but happy to share that with you afterwards, Nick.
No, that's fine. And then lastly on resi, sort of what appetite would you have of sort of acquiring a distressed resi project, for example, the Seasc ape, and sort of sitting on a site, you know, as it is for a while, if there was an opportunity around that, is that something that you could look at?
I guess without getting into sort of specific projects, the team's kind of screening a whole range of opportunities at the moment, and and we are seeing, you know, and we have done for the last 12 months, quite good value. Which is why we think our entry into this market at this stage is really good timing, 'cause we're able to set up a pipeline that I think will offer us really good returns over the next sort of 6years-7 years. And this is not specific to that particular project that you've identified, but if there was good opportunity around and you can manage the risk, then, you know, we'd definitely have a look at it.
That's not to say that we're advancing on anything like that at the moment, though, Nick.
All right. That's fine. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Rohan Koreman-Smit, from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just hopefully a couple of quick ones. Maybe back to the most of your capital, the office portfolio. Can you just give us some color on current kind of leasing inquiries and any sort of, you know, new leases, or any change in the leasing environment in the last couple of months?
Yeah, Rohan, Scott here. I mean, I think we're seeing probably less inquiry than where we were, say, 12 months ago. And I think in February, we sort of foreshadowed that we expected the level of inquiry to come off. But we're still seeing quite, you know, elevated levels of inquiry, mainly because there's not a lot of, kind of, opportunities for people to get into really high quality real estate. So when space does become available, we are still seeing, you know, good inquiry levels. It did go quiet for a little while, you know, and that's probably the second quarter of the year. But the property and asset management team have actually been quite encouraged in the last kind of three or four months. So, you know, we're sort of quite encouraged by that.
And I think to your point, Rohan, you know, this is where the vast majority of our capital is invested, and we're really pleased with the performance of the portfolio. It's really giving us the opportunity to be able to, you know, do some alternate things and sort of try and drive some growth in other aspects of the business.
In Wellington, have you seen the government departments finally react to the government's mandate to save costs? You know, and kind of, can you give us any color on how you think that they will adjust the leasing footprint down there?
Yeah, I mean, I guess, we're in a fortunate position that all of our government assets have got really long-term leases in place, and so we haven't seen any kind of retraction in terms of, you know, government trying to withdraw from space that they currently occupy from us. We know that government agencies are definitely trying to find those cost-saving targets that have been imposed upon them, and to date, they've generally been in the form of kind of personnel, and we've still got the situation in Wellington that's persisted for a very long period of time, where there is still a bunch of buildings which are facing obsolescence. That kind of structural overlay hasn't changed.
And so I think where you might see government kind of withdrawing from space will be where those spaces present kind of, you know, B and C grade type of real estate. So I think we're reasonably well protected there. But I mean, I do expect that, you know, government will try and kind of pull some demand out of the market.
Your capital partners with GIC and PAG, how are they going around acquiring assets? And do you see opportunity in the current market, you know, to progress those strategies? You've talked a lot about resi and living. I was just wondering about the office side of things.
Yeah, yeah. Look, not to speak for those parties, but sort of generally in terms of interest from capital partners in New Zealand and in opportunities, well, office, as we covered off sort of in the middle of the year at the investor update, office investment market is subdued. The reduction that we've seen in interest costs is increasing the level of interest, but it's from a pretty low base, to be completely transparent about it. But the interest in New Zealand generally, I would say, has increased. And that's on the back of some more, you know, more investor-friendly government settings, even moves around OIO and stuff to process things quicker. That all helps in terms of overseas capital interest in New Zealand.
Thanks. And finally, you talked about a capital partner for Mount Eden. Is this a new one, or is it part of the existing residential capital partner suite?
Yeah, no. So what we've identified today is that we're in exclusive discussions for, with a capital partner for 256 Queen. And-
Oh, sorry, misunderstood.
Yeah, and the build-to-sell resi pipeline, capital partnership opportunities have been advanced there, so. That'll be a little while away because we need to get to a point where we want to sort of trigger one of those developments, which is not gonna be until probably middle of next year at the earliest.
Cool, thanks.
Thanks, Rohan.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Nicholas Hill, from Craigs IP. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and congratulations on the solid operating result, as well as making progress on the Downtown Carpark. In terms of re-leasing spreads, would you be able to give an indication as to where these new rents are versus the current value as market assessed rents? You mentioned leasing was 7.9% above FY 2023 rents, and given there was a 4.5% increase in market rents over the year, would I be correct in saying that leasing was down at around 2.8% above FY 2024 market assessed rents?
Yeah, it's about that level. Might get slightly higher, but there or thereabouts.
... Okay, thanks. And then just thinking aloud, you are still achieving solid leasing and rental growth through the softening macro backdrop, which has, I guess, worsened since the interim results. The office sector is heavily impacted by the economic cycle. However, I am hearing the flight to quality, the dynamic is changing things with premium office landlords now increasingly offering greater tenant incentives in exchange for longer lease terms, thereby mitigating vacancy risk in a downturn. I was wondering how you're currently thinking about the trade-off between, I guess, reaching for maximal rental growth, regarding re-leasing versus shaving a bit off near-term income growth in exchange for some more risk mitigation, and what kind of proof points you would have to see to make you consider going down the risk mitigation route?
Yeah, I mean, I think you raise a good point, Nick, and, you know, at a point, we will start prioritizing higher occupancy over, you know, continued market rental growth. Over the last 24 months, the team set a really clear objective of driving market rental growth because the extent to which we've been able to drive that is kind of mitigated valuation risk. That's largely been achieved. So you might see us in the next 12 months or so, starting to actually prioritize occupancy, and retention of some of our, you know, some of our client base. So, I can see that occurring in the next 12 months and that's just sort of adapting to the conditions in the market that we're in.
You'll probably see us being, you know, more focused on making sure that the portfolio is occupied.
Great, thanks. And in terms of the Wynyard Quarter acquisition, I noticed there was some commentary around acquiring a minority interest in the Orams Marine Village, including a new small scale development. Are you referring to the recently completed dry stack, and are you taking any interest in any operating businesses as part of the deal?
Hi, Nick, George here. Yeah, so no, we're not taking any interest in the operating businesses. It's in the real estate only. So we're taking a 25% interest in the real estate that runs from the dry stack through to the new sheds. The commercial development site sits between the new sheds and the older part of the Marine Village, and that sort of site just to the south of those new sheds.
Thanks. And from memory, this area is zoned as marine commercial. How does the development account for the relatively unique zoning requirements? Does the commercial aspect of the development focus on the marine commercial use?
So that commercial aspect is a mix, about half and half between marine-related use and office use, and the resource consent for that allows for that office use on those levels.
Great, thanks. That's all for me.
Thanks, Nick.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Pritchard for closing remarks.
Thanks, Harmony. Look, once again, thanks, everyone, for joining us on the call. We're really pleased with the result. We're pleased with the progress we've made in the last twelve months. You know, the strategy and the progress that we're seeing there is something that we've been focused on for a long time, and it's only been enabled by the strengths of the core portfolio. So, grateful for your support, and if you have any other questions, please, don't hesitate to sing out. Thanks, everyone.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.