Mirvac reveals surge in Sydney, Melbourne housing estate sales
Mirvac CEO Campbell Hanan is bullish about the prospects of the residential property market. Picture: Tara Croser
Property group Mirvac has given a bullish outlook on the housing market and flagged further growth in the living sector, which includes traditional apartments and housing estates as well as build-to-rent towers.
The company is emerging as one of the big winners from the federal government’s revamped first home buyers scheme to allow people of all income levels to purchase a property with only a 5 per cent deposit and avoid costly lenders mortgage insurance.
“We saw a significant uplift in residential sales in thefirst quarter, with 619 lots exchanged, driven by strong momentum at our Sydney and Melbourne masterplanned communities – up 150 per cent and 125 per cent on the same time last year, respectively,” Mirvac chief executive Campbell Hanan said.
“Our business is well placed to benefit from the federal government’s new first-home buyer guarantee scheme introduced earlier this month, with over 1400 of our expected lot releases in fiscal 2026 falling within the updated pricing caps,” he said.
In a busy quarter, the company sold a 50 per cent interest in the $2.3bn Harbourside project in Sydney to Japan’s Mitsubishi Estate Co. and made an unsuccessful tilt at taking on the management of Lendlease’s APPF platform after a rebellion by major superannuation funds was quashed by the incumbent.
Mr Hanan said the new Harbourside partnership helped to unlock about $450m of capital to fund its development pipeline, while delivering development management fees during construction.
Much of the focus of investors is now on the residential side, and Mirvac’s sales lift, with the 619 residential lots exchanged representing a 79 per cent rise on the previous quarter. There are a further 432 conditional sales on hand, it settled 265 lots and has pre-sales of $1.6bn.
The company also had strong leasing activity across newly completed build-to-rent assets, with LIV Anura, Brisbane, over 46 per cent leased. It also expanded its land lease portfolio, with a new site acquired in Victoria and another two sites in due diligence.
“We continued to grow our exposure to the living sectors, with a further three sites secured or in advanced due diligence in our land lease portfolio and discussions well progressed for a new build-to-rent site in Melbourne,” Mr Hanan said.
The company’s commercial areas were also active with more tenants coming into 7 Spencer St, Melbourne, and it finished a warehouse at Aspect North in Sydney’s Kemps Creek.
Mirvac’s main office fund is also cashed up after raising $415m since April .
