Lendlease’s almost $1.3 billion sale of a dozen master-planned projects, including two in Perth, has cleared the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Lendlease’s almost $1.3 billion sale of a dozen master-planned projects, including two in Perth, has cleared the Foreign Investment Review Board.
The announcement of the key regulatory approval aided an initial uplift in the ASX-listed property company’s share price this morning before setting down to $6.73 apiece at 1.30PM.
Lendlease has been planning to sell 12 community projects, including the Alkimos Beach and Alkimos Vista developments, to joint venture buyers Stockland and Supalai for $1.06 billion.
ASX-listed Stockland is major diversified property group with several projects afoot in Perth, while Supalai is a Bangkok-based property developer with an interest in Australia.
Both have an interest in various master-planned communities throughout Western Australia and other states, at a time when the nation battles to meet ambitious housing targets.
Supalai welcomed the approval for what it described as the nation’s largest ever acquisition of going concern land subdivisions in a single transaction.
The joint venture buyer said the deal – expected to be competed in the second quarter of FY25 - took Supalai’s investment commitment in Australia to about $850 million.
Completion of the deal is still contingent on the consent of relevant landowners, Lendlease told the market.
“It is a powerful endorsement by a significant overseas investor of the residential development sector in Australia”, Supalai’s Australian advisor Joseph Gersh said.
“Without such investment, the government’s ambitious programme to address Australia’s housing shortage cannot possibly be met”.
The acquisition initially sparked competition concerns from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, but later gained the watchdog’s blessing.
Streamlined approval processes are critical to attracting international investment in property against a backdrop of ambitious housing targets, Mr Gersh said.
“We need to do everything possible to make our legal framework and regulatory processes as efficient and transparent as possible if we are to continue to attract the overseas investment we need to meet Australia’s housing needs,” Mr Gersh said.
“Gersh Investment Partners Limited will continue to liaise with government at all levels to ensure that this is the case.”
Master-planned community projects are residential property developments on greenfield land usually delivered in phases over several years.
The developments tend to encompass recreational facilities, education and community spaces and commercial or retail centres.
