Helping to offset the volatile residential sales market is the group’s expanding build-to-rent business with its LIV Munro, Melbourne 54 per cent leased and LIV Indigo, Sydney 96 per cent occupied.

In a new report by Savills Australia, it predicts the amount of institutional capital already raised, allocated or in the process of being raised for build-to-rent is exceeding $15.85 billion.

Savills director of operational capital markets Paul Savitz, said assuming that this $15.85 billion in capital is leveraged with debt, this could potentially support the delivery of 52,800 new homes by 2028.

“This will contribute to the government’s targets for housing delivery and help deliver much-needed rental housing stock to Australian cities struggling in the rental crisis,” Savitz said.

Mirvac was the first listed real estate investment trust to move into the build-to-rent sector in Australia and has now expanded to establish a new venture with two long-term capital partners.

Hanan also updated investors saying the group has been restructured into three units – investments, funds management and development – which will operate as separate earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divisions to reflect the growing scale of the fund management platform.

He said asset management has been established as a separate business unit to remove any conflicts in the structure and “provide independent service and support to both Mirvac and its third-party capital partners”.

“With about $18 billion of external assets under management and a clear strategy to grow our fund management platform, third-party capital will play a critical role in our business into the future, as we look to unlock the substantial value embedded in our development pipeline and increase scale in living sectors and industrial,” he said.

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“We’ve had a clear focus on increasing the quality of our investment portfolio over the past 10 years, and we now have one of the most modern, sustainable portfolios in the country.”

In the industrial business, a new third-party partnership has been formed to take a 49 per cent stake in the industrial assets of Switchyard, Auburn and Aspect North, Kemps Creek - the latter of which was hit by delays in the planning approval for the remaining assets in the project’s first stage.

For the office sector, Mirvac’s long-awaited sale of its half stake in 60 Margaret Street/MetCentre, Sydney (Blackstone is the co-investor) is expected to be finalised and settled in the current quarter.

Hanan said during the quarter there were 45 new leasing deals struck with the office portfolio sitting at 96.1 per cent occupancy compared to office market vacancy of 13.7 per cent and 15.6 per cent in its core CBD markets of Sydney and Melbourne.

The group’s popular Broadway shopping centre in Sydney’s city was again a strong performer and received the Australian Shopping Centre News Big Guns award for the most productive shopping centre in the country with turnover per square metre at $16,272 per square metre.

Jones said leasing spreads have turned positive in the quarter and total portfolio moving average sales growth is at 12.6 per cent above 2019 levels.

The distribution per security guidance is 10.5¢, representing 2.9 per cent growth