Analysts warn of further writedowns of listed property trusts



ANALYSTS have warned of further writedowns of listed property trusts such as Australand and Stockland, and say Mirvac’s latest $215 million provision may not be its last.


Mirvac’s shares closed steady last night following the company’s announcement of a $215m impairment on zero-margin projects and unsold stock in poorly performing regional markets.

The property trust said it would expand its undeveloped land sales program, which would cut capital expenditure by $312m, secure about $70m from the sales and return the company’s development division profit margins to normal levels of about 20 per cent by 2014.

In a research note, property analysts John Freedman and Tom Bodor of UBS said the risk of further provisions was greatest for developers involved in lifestyle, regional or premium luxury projects, which included Stockland, Australand and Lend Lease.

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But Mr Freedman said because Stockland had announced it was exiting the apartment market altogether, it meant management “didn’t hold back” on writedowns during 2008 and 2009. Stockland still had apartments to sell down, such as those in its luxury Sydney apartment development The Hyde, but any writedown was likely to be proportionately small, UBS said.

The risk for Stockland was more that revenue from apartment projects would take longer to secure than anticipated.

In 2008 and 2009, Stockland took charges against its residential division and apartment businesses of $425m, including a $110m impairment on its Wallarah residential project in Lake Macquarie, NSW.

UBS said that Stockland had about $360m of inventory in apartments, including $108m in land, as at June last year.

At Australand, only 10 per cent of inventory, which was worth about $870m, was in the lifestyle category.

“There might be some marginal disappointment, but you are not likely to be anything of similar proportions (to Mirvac),” Mr Freedman said.

Last year, Lend Lease agreed to sell the Japanese housing giant Sekisui House a half share of the Sunshine Coast’s Hyatt Coolum resort and ownership of surrounding land for a 450- home residential project. UBS suggested the Coolum project sale was well timed.