Cedar Woods’ strategy keeps pace with buyer priorities to deliver value to shareholders

Cedar Woods’ diversified and quality portfolio drove the Company’s strong performance across the 2021 Financial Year, firmly placing the Company on a pathway to pre COVID-19 earnings and beyond. This long-standing strategy continues to position Cedar Woods well to harness the opportunities presented by a recovering economy in which buyers remain active and are showing preference for the Company’s product offering.

Reflecting on Cedar Woods’ strong financial performance, Managing Director Nathan Blackburne highlighted the Company’s ability to perform through property cycles and its diversified portfolio as key reasons for its success.  

“We have ensured a mix of product type in our portfolio and that has been instrumental in appealing to a variety of buyer profiles – from new families looking for their first home, young couples wanting a trendy townhouse in a good location to downsizers looking for a new but smaller home – we have products that cater to almost every geography, price point and stage of life.”

Above : Strong townhouse sales results achieved in 2021 Financial Year in Fletcher’s Slip, Cedar Wood’s portside development in Adelaide

Cedar Woods continues to fill the gap in the market for buyers seeking an ideal infill location, close to amenity but without the downsides of CBD living. Cedar Woods’ townhouse and apartment offering has been welcomed by the market in the eastern states and is proving to be just as popular in Western Australia. Across the year, Cedar Woods’ built form projects experienced strong price growth and sell out success across several stages at Fletcher’s Slip in Adelaide and Incontro in Perth where new releases and products are now being launched.

As the strong demand for land and townhouses continued, conditions improved for apartments with Cedar Woods’ launch of Monarch apartments at Glenside, South Australia where 40% of the apartments were sold within four weeks and 70% are now sold just 12 weeks since its launch to market.

At financial year end, Cedar Woods reported presales of $478 million which is a record for the Company. These strong presales underpin earnings growth for the Company over the next financial year, with approximately two thirds of the presales expected to settle in 2022 Financial Year.

Above : Huntington Apartments. Cedar Wood’s largest apartment project delivered to date with settlements expected in 2022 Financial Year.

With a track record of consistently outperforming peers over medium and long term timeframes on Total Shareholder Return (TSR), Cedar Woods retains a strong balance sheet from which the Company strives to take advantage of acquisition opportunities to drive future growth.

“At Cedar Woods we’re always looking to sensibly expand our portfolio and we have dedicated acquisitions resources assessing opportunities around the country.  We are good at consistently uncovering well located sites to acquire, ensuring our pipeline is filled with smart projects that can generate great returns for our shareholders and excellent products for our customers. We carefully select sites where our type of product is hard to come by and provide our customers with the opportunity to live in a new home in a long-established area,” said Mr Blackburne.

Over the financial year, the Company continued to build its pipeline of development projects with the acquisition of a 40.7 hectare site in South Maclean, south west of Brisbane and a strategic 21.7 hectare site in Melbourne’s north, immediately adjacent to Cedar Woods’ existing Mason Quarter project in Wollert. Cedar Woods’ acquisition team has a talent for finding and converting off-market deals and don’t just concentrate on obvious market opportunities.

Looking forward in FY22, with a pipeline of more than 9000 lots/units, Cedar Woods is making the most of favourable market conditions and is accelerating the release of new project stages to capture the demand from new home buyers. Cedar Woods is continuing to present a steady stream of quality product to the market especially from projects like Glenside and Fletcher’s Slip in South Australia, Bushmead in Western Australia and Mason Quarter in Victoria.

With investors starting to re-enter the market at a more rapid pace as COVID-19 restrictions fall, conditions are expected to continue to improve for apartments and offices. In recent months Cedar Woods has experienced a resumption of suburban commercial properties sales.

“In FY22 we are continuing to see strong market conditions around the country, in fact all markets are very buoyant. Sales are strong across the vast majority of product types and in all states, which is allowing us to build presales to support the Company’s future earnings,” said Mr Blackburne.

Low interest rates, pent up demand, limited new housing supply and falling unemployment are key fundamentals that are supporting the new housing sector and this is expected to continue for some time. As lockdowns end and migration into Australia restarts, demand for housing is expected to continue to be favourable.

“We are sticking to our winning strategy of acquiring projects in high demand locations, offering a range of products to suit every lifestyle, and delivering quality service every time. This has delivered great results and will continue to do so in this year and beyond.”