Vicinity Centres

and welcome to the Centres FY26 annual results briefing. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Peter Hurl, CEO and Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us for the vicinity centres results call for the 12 month ended 30th of June 2026. Joining me on today's call is Adrian Chai, our Chief Financial Officer. I will start today's presentation on slide five. FY26 was another year of important progress for Vicinity with discipline investment, capital allocation and operational execution reflected in our financial results, portfolio metrics and strengthened balance sheet. Our strategy remains clear to own and operate premium and differentiated retail portfolio capable of delivering superior income and value growth through cycles. The structural conditions underpinning this strategy remain in place. Retail supply per capita continues to contract, and leading discretionary retailers are prioritising high-quality, productive assets. In this context, we completed the $625 million transformation of Chatswood Chase, with the asset now home to the largest and most compelling luxury offer in New South Wales outside Sydney CBD. We have secured full ownership of Uptown. Having acquired the remaining 75% interest for $212 million, Uptown is a landmark Brisbane CBD asset with significant growth potential. We acquired DFO Eastern Creek, increasing our exposure to Western Sydney's residential growth corridor and strengthening our established outlet operating platform. and we continue to recycle capital into assets with stronger growth prospects and clearer strategic relevance. Having entered into binding agreements for the divestment of Tagon Square for $120 million only late last week, total assets divested in FY26 and FY27 to date comprise $447 million. Adrian and I will cover the details shortly, but in summary, Statutory net profit after tax was $1.39 billion, up by nearly $400 million. Funds from operation increased through $700.1 million and on a per security basis reached $15.21 cents, which was at the top end of our guidance range of $15 to $15.2 cents per security. The Board declared a final distribution of $6.2 cents per security, bringing the FY26 distribution to $12.4 cents per security and representing a payout ratio of 95.5% of adjusted FFO. Supported by occupancy of 99.6%, positive leasing spreads of 4.2% and disciplined property management, comparable NPI grew 4.2%. Our balance sheet strengthened further in FY26 with both headline and pro forma gearing remaining at the lower end of our target range. Meanwhile 2 billion of debt transactions were executed during the year the outcomes of which materially increased our weighted average debt maturity from 3.8 to 5.1 years and preserved our weighted average cost of debt at 5%. Of particular note NTA increased by 19 cents or 7.7% to $2.59 per security and by extension we are pleased to report a total return of 12.8% for the year. Today's result represents the cumulative benefit of a portfolio we have been deliberately reshaping over several years supported by favourable sector fundamentals. We have recycled capital from smaller, lower growth and less strategically aligned assets and redeployed it into premium assets via targeted acquisitions and major developments. premium assets comprise 67% of portfolio value, up from 51% in June 2022. The proof points that underpin our strategy remain. At 5.1% and positive 7.7%, comparable MPI growth and leasing spreads delivered by our premium assets remain well above the relevant portfolio averages. and specialty sales productivity of more than 17,000 per square metre was more than 25% above the portfolio average. The combination of several years of superior portfolio metrics is showcased by the MPI growth of 5.8% per annum delivered by our premium assets since June 2022 on a like-to-like basis. and by extension income has been the major impetus underpinning the 41% uplift in average asset values over the same period. Our strategy is fit for purpose and our conviction remains anchored by the financial outcomes it is delivering. In this context and a market where opportunities to add outlet exposure are limited, The acquisition of DFO Eastern Creek strengthens our outlet portfolio and increases our exposure to Western Sydney's growth corridor. While subject to receiving confirmation for the assignment of the ground lease, we will utilise our nomination provision to on-sell the large format retail component on a pass-through basis for $49 million. And by extension, the acquisition of DFO Eastern Creek settled on June 30, 2026 for $351 million. DFO Eastern Creek combines everyday convenience with Destinational Outlet Retail and with its distinct catchment and customer profile, the acquisition compliments DFO Homebush. Outlet Retail is a format we know well and we have a proven capability of acquiring, repositioning and growing income over time. Since acquiring our 50% interest in DFO University Hill in 2020 and Harbour Town Gold Coast in late 2021, These assets have delivered NPI growth of 10.2% and 6.5% per annum respectively. At ZFO Eastern Creek, we see clear scope to lift performance over time by targeted leasing, improved customer experiences and operational efficiencies. What's more, in the more medium term, there is an additional 8,500 square metres of approved outlet expansion which allows us to contemplate greater growth potential into the future. Turning now to retail sales which remain resilient, over the year more than 380 million customer visits to our assets, underpinned annual portfolio sales of approximately 18.4 billion representing MAT growth of 3.3% at June 2026, which was 50 basis points higher than June 2025. Specially in many major sales increased by 4% with all retail categories finishing the year in growth. While growth rates moderated, sales in the second half of FY26 were above the same period last year despite the vastly different operating environments. While luxury sales moderated as cost of living pressures impacted the aspirational customer, the category continues to enjoy exceptional productivity levels at around $61,000 per square metre. Excluding luxury, specially mini-major sales grew 3.5% in the second half. And finally for the 7th consecutive 6 month period we delivered growth in specialty sales productivity reaching $13,512 per square metre in FY26. Sales productivity is ultimately the output of strategic leasing, curating the right brands, formats and customer offer across each asset and the leasing outcomes this year show the strength of that execution. In this context, occupancy strengthened to 99.6%, representing less than one vacancy per centre on average across our portfolio. Leasing spreads for the year were a positive 4.2%, our strongest annual result to date. Adding to this, average annual escalators were maintained at 4.8% and reflecting retailer demand for space. in an increasingly supply constrained environment, average tenure on new deals completed increased to 4.6 years. At 14.4% our specialty occupancy cost ratio remains healthy and continues to provide capacity for future rental growth where sales and retailer profitability support it. The proportion of income on holdover reduced to a record low of 1.5% or just 92 stores excluding sites strategically held for development. Together these metrics point to a healthier, more productive asset portfolio and to the value created when retailers use Vicinity's portfolio to enter, grow and scale in Australia. That pathway often starts at Chadstone then extends for our premium assets and over time into strong regional centres. This is especially evidenced by the proliferation of the number of mini-major stores both across and within our portfolio in recent years. Since June 2019, average store sizes across the portfolio have increased by 19%. In some cases, high performing specialty retailers expand into larger format stores to maximise sales potential. In other cases, both new to market and established retailers are using mini-major stores to scale into additional assets. Athleisure, beauty and lifestyle brands have led this shift, seeking larger formats to showcase broader ranges and immersive brand experiences. The leasing outcomes are compelling, with mini-major leasing spreads at 6.5% in FY26. This is not a one-year aberration. Leasing spreads for mini-majors have tracked above the portfolio average for the last six consecutive six-month periods. And with mini-major sales growth tracking at 7.5% per annum since June 2019, the current and future upside potential is sustainable. I'll hand the call to Adrian.

Thanks, Peter, and good morning. I'll start on slide 12. Statutory net profit after tax for the year was $1.391 billion, with $700 million derived from FFO and $691 million from statutory, non-cash and other items, largely reflecting net property valuation gains. FFO increased 3.9% to $700 million, and at $15.21 cents, FFO per security was at the top end of our guidance range. Adjusting for one-off items and lower development related loss of rent, FFO per security increased 4.1%. Reported MPI increased by 2.2% with strong comparable MPI growth and development income partly offset by transaction impacts. On a comparable basis, NPI increased by 4.2%, reflecting an improvement in occupancy, positive leasing spreads, and fixed annual escalators of 4.8% for specialty and mini-major tenants. Our ongoing focus on cost management resulted in net corporate overheads increasing by only 1.6%, net interest expense reduced by 3.8%, primarily due to net proceeds from asset sales and the distribution reinvestment plan. This was partly offset by lower capitalised interest. Maintenance capex and leasing incentives at approximately $100 million was consistent with recent years. Turning now to valuations on slide 13. The portfolio delivered a net valuation gain of $293 million or 1.8% for the six months to 30 June 2026, marking the fifth consecutive half of positive valuation growth. Income growth was the key driver, underpinned by enhanced portfolio quality and strong operating metrics. outlets were the strongest contributors to income growth, led by DFO South Wharf and DFO Homebush. Overall, the weighted average capitalisation rate tightened modestly by two basis points, supported by favourable retail sector fundamentals, together with sustained investor appetite for retail assets, providing transaction evidence across the full spectrum of retail asset segments. Positive valuation growth supported an increase in net tangible assets per security, up 2.8% in the second half of FY26 to $2.59. On a full year basis, the net portfolio valuation gains were $700 million, contributing to a 19 cent or 7.7% increase in NTA. Looking ahead, Vicinity's enhanced portfolio quality resilient income growth and supportive sector fundamentals provide a strong platform for continued positive valuation outcomes. Turning now to capital management. Maintaining a conservative and disciplined approach to capital management while preserving the flexibility to invest through the cycle remains central to Vicinity's strategy. We continued to actively manage our capital, deploying approximately $900 million of capital into development projects and strategic acquisitions, and divesting $447 million of assets and raising $192 million via the DRP. At 30 June, our gearing was 26.1%. Adjusting for the settlement of the Uptown Acquisition and Tagum Square sale, pro forma gearing is 26.5% and remains at the lower end of our 25-35% target range, providing ongoing flexibility for future investment opportunities. We also maintained our investment grade credit ratings of A stable from S&P and A2 stable from Moody's. During the year we capitalised on supportive credit market conditions. raising $732 million through 10-year debt capital markets transactions. This included a $500 million 10-year ANTN as well as Hong Kong dollar private placements. Pricing was favourable. An investor appetite for longer tenors supported a meaningful extension in weighted average debt maturity to 5.1 years from 3.8 years at June 2025. We also extended and repriced $1.2 billion of bank facilities, reducing interest cost and further strengthening the debt maturity profile. Our weighted average cost of debt was 4.98% and the average portion of hedged debt over FY26 was around 90% and our forecast for FY27 is 87%. With $800 million of undrawn debt facilities, we retain sufficient liquidity to cover all FY27 funding requirements. The DRP will remain active for the FY26 final distribution, supporting continued capital flexibility. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Peter.

Thanks, Adrian. Turning to our developments. FY26 marked a defining milestone for Chatswood Chase, with the completion of the $625 million transformation, including the opening of the luxury precinct from 30 April. The project has repositioned Chatswood Chase as Northern Sydney's pre-eminent retail destination, bringing together global luxury maisons, international icons, premium Australian designers, elevated dining, fresh food and bespoke customer services. Following the successful opening of the luxury precinct, Chatswood Chase has since welcomed Tiffany, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermes, Rolex and Cartier, further endorsing the asset's luxury repositioning and reinforcing its position as home to the largest and most compelling luxury offer in New South Wales outside of the Sydney CBD. While it's still early days, performance has been encouraging. with the quality of the new offer resonating with customers and retailers. From an investment perspective, we're especially pleased to share that expected returns from the project have increased. The stabilised yield is now expected to be around 6.7%, up by approximately 70 basis points, with an unlevered IRR of around 11%, up by approximately 100 basis points. Upon stabilisation, Chatswood Chase should be valued at approximately $1.5 billion, translating to an estimated development profit of more than $250 million. With Chatswood Chase now complete, the next major milestone in our development pipeline is Galleria, which is entering its final stages ahead of opening in November, in time for the important Black Friday and Christmas trading period. The project will elevate Galleria's role as a leading retail, dining and entertainment destination in Perth's north-eastern growth corridor, with a revitalised mall, new leisure and dining precinct, state-of-the-art cinema and enhanced customer experience. And with 98% of leases instructed, we're pleased to announce the retailer line-up, which comprises a strong mix of national and international brands. Alongside long-standing partners, including a refurbished Coles and Meyer stores, Galleria will welcome Hoyts, Mecca, JD Sports, JB Hi-Fi, Oraton and Victoria's Secret. Like Chatswood Chase, this project is expected to exceed original return expectations with a stabilised yield of around 6.25% and an unlevered IRR of approximately 11.5%. And as Galleria nears completion, our preparations for the redevelopment of Uptown accelerate. With full control of this landmark Brisbane CBD asset now secured, the opportunity is to create a complete full line retail asset. Our plans for Uptown will address a clear gap in Brisbane's CBD retail offer and will naturally complement our luxury proposition at Queen's Plaza. Our plans include a major repositioning of the retail asset, upgraded services, contemporary ambience and improved customer amenity, which is appropriately adjacent to major infrastructure upgrades in the Brisbane CBD. We are progressing authority approvals presently and we anticipate a project cost of between $350 and $400 million. and our expected project returns remain unchanged with a stabilised yield of greater than 6% and an unlevered IRR of greater than 10%. From a delivery perspective, the project is well advanced with dedicated organisational capability deployed, positive engagement with local and state governments and Hutchinson builders engaged through a pre-construction process. Chadston continues to evolve as Australia's leading retail destination and one of the country's most compelling retail-led mixed-use precincts. With more than 22 million customer visits each year, Chadston provides an unmatched stage for leading brands to invest in flagship experiences, showcase their best concepts and connect with customers at scale. The luxury precinct is now entering its next phase of development. with Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hermes and Fendi investing in larger formats to showcase broader ranges and deliver more immersive brand experiences. Together, these maisons will occupy around 3,000 square metres of space at Chadstone, an increase of approximately 80%. As we maintain continuous trade for these retailers and their clients, construction is underway with openings planned from mid-2027. and beauty and well-being powerhouse Mecca is also investing in a new 2,400 square metre next-generational store, almost tripling its current footprint. Opening in time for Christmas, the store will showcase more than 200 brands, offer over 50 bookable beauty services and bring Mecca's latest beauty and well-being concepts to Chaston. Importantly, our development approach is not limited to large-scale transformations or premium assets. Building on recent examples this fiscal year, including the repurposing of the former David Jones Space at Mandurah Forum and the new Uniqlo flagship at Emporium Melbourne, are important projects at Grant Plaza in Queensland and Castle Plaza in South Australia. At Grand Plaza we are repurposing the former cinema space to introduce a new Rebel alongside an upgraded food and dining offer with completion expected in the fourth quarter of FY27. At Castle Plaza we are replacing the former IGA tenancy with a new full line Woolworths supermarket together with a number of new specialty stores. We expect to complete the works in the third quarter of this fiscal year. Taken together, these projects demonstrate the breadth and discipline of our development program. From major transformations at Chatswood Chase and Galleria to the next phase of investments at Chadstone and Uptown and targeted projects at Grand Plaza and Castle Plaza, our focus is consistent. We are allocating capital to assets where we see pathway to stronger income, improved market position and long-term value creation. That also means upgrading the customer proposition, supporting the expansion of plans of leading retailers and enhancing asset quality in a way that delivers compounding returns over time. We look forward to sharing more detail on our development pipeline at our Capability Showcase in mid-September. Turning now to mixed use. As we've said before, Chatswood Chase represents our most compelling near-term mixed use opportunity. As a reminder the opportunity comprises 480 luxury apartments and represents a compelling value creation opportunity leveraging the strength of the recently transformed retail asset and the quality of its surrounding catchment. Since our interim result announced in February we have secured revised HDA approval for residential tower height and residential connectivity into Chatswood Chase. We have received confirmation from the design review panel that the project demonstrates the potential to achieve design excellence which is a major milestone. Community engagement was recently completed and by extension our development application documentation is advancing with current timelines indicating authority approval being received in 2027. We continue to retain full strategic optionality as we evaluate funding and delivery structures that balance the realisation of attractive returns with disciplined balance sheet management. Turning now to FY27 earnings guidance. FY27 represents a meaningful inflection point for vicinity as the benefits of our portfolio repositioning, disciplined capital allocation and recent investment activity are expected to translate into a step change in our earnings growth profile. In this context we expect FY27 FFO per security to be in the range of 16 to 16.2 cents and AFFO per security to be in the range of 13.9 to 14.1 cents. This implies FFO per security growth of between 5.3% and 6.6%. The key assumptions underlying guidance are set out on this slide and as always our guidance remains subject to unforeseen circumstances and material changes in operating conditions. In closing, our FY26 results demonstrates that our investment strategy is clear, fit for purpose and delivering tangible outcomes. Vicinity is a stronger business than it was four years ago, with a more productive, more clearly differentiated portfolio, clearer earnings growth pathways and the balance sheet strength to support ongoing investment. As we look to FY27, we are confident in the elements we can control. Not only does a stronger than expected FY26 provide a stronger underlying earning space in FY27, but Chadston enters FY27 fully stabilised, Chatswood Chase contributes a full year of income, Galleria opens in November and Uptown and DFO Eastern Creek provide income and future value potential. Meanwhile the structural conditions underpinning our strategy also remain in place with retail supply per capita continuing to contract and retailer demand prioritised in resilient and more productive assets. That said, we remain mindful of geopolitical uncertainty, potential shifts in household and financial conditions, and broader market volatility, and we continue to manage the business and allocate capital accordingly. Taken together, our outlook for FY27 is one of cautious confidence. Before I hand the call to Q&A, I extend our thanks to our investors, our retail and joint venture partners, our customers, of course the vicinity team and indeed everyone associated with the company for your support and contribution. Thank you. We'll open the call to questions.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then 2. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. We also ask that you please limit yourself to two questions. Today's first question comes from Solomon Zhang with UBS. Please go ahead.

Morning, Peter, Adrian, Tim. Thanks for your time. Just wanted to ask about the lifting yield on cost assumption on Chatsworth to 6.7%, clearly for you to see. Was that more on the cost side or income? What drove that? And have you revised your two-year stabilisation period to that stabilised yield on cost?

Hey, Solomon. It's Peter here. Fundamentally, it's all based on income in the lift in that uplift, which is a pleasing result from us. That's how we would like to see it. And then obviously that income then compounds into the future at a much higher rate. in terms of the stabilisation. It's still very early days for Chatswood, so we're still holding our stabilisation assumptions the same, which is essentially a higher level of stabilisation for FY27, about half that amount for FY28, and a fraction of that amount going into FY29. There's still about four luxury retailers to open over the course of the next 12 months and then obviously re-establishing the market area for them.

Thanks. Just a second question, maybe a broader one, just on, I guess, the macro and how that's influencing your leasing decisions. I guess, in an environment, just intuitively, when sales are decelerating, you would have expected that maybe spreads are moderated, but just looking at your apparel and footwear spreads, there was 6% versus sales growth at 1%. Just trying to reconcile that and maybe just touching on how you think the sales actually influences that are releasing spread and whether you think 4% is actually sustainable heading into 27 as well. Thanks.

Yes, Olem. It's Peter here. It's probably fair enough to say there has been moderation in sales and within our FY27 guidance, we essentially have put within that guidance a leasing spread forecast of around 3%. So we have taken some reduction in terms of the performance of this year into the guidance for the next year. So we do take that into account. That said, we're at 99.6% occupancy of our assets. We have very strong leasing demand, particularly in the last two months of the fiscal year. And we are churning about 26% of our tenants. So that's fundamentally on purpose to ensure we have the right brands that are more productive within that space. And over the last few years, that's really how that active curation management is really how we've been able to drive better performance in that leasing spread. We would hope that continues throughout FY27. We're obviously mindful of where sales are. I would say they have been quite resilient, sales. They have come off in the last six months. We've just printed July sales as well, which were slightly better than the last quarter. Thanks, Pete.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Connor Eldridge at JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi Peter and team, thanks for your time this morning. Just follow on from that last comment around the assumption of 3% spreads in the 27 guide. How does that compare to the spreads that you achieved in the fourth quarter? It looks like they might have stepped down a fair bit just based on the full year average of 4.2%.

Yeah, Connor, it's Peter here. Probably the fourth quarter, the leasing spreads were around that 2% mark. Again, we're obviously looking, it's not it's not untypical for that to occur. For whatever reason, we normally have stronger spreads in the first half of the fiscal year and then have slightly weaker spreads coming into the second half. Every month the spread remained positive, but yes, it was around 2% to 2.5% for the last quarter.

Thanks. And just on the Chatswood Resi opportunity, you mentioned optionality across delivery and funding structures. Could you maybe just expand on, I suppose, what your current preference would be based on just where you see the market today?

Our preference has always been to partner on that project, at least as a minimum a capital partner and someone who also may bring expertise into that venture. So our focus really at the moment is to secure the rezoning and the development approvals that really entrenches the value into the land. We're obviously really mindful of the residential market, particularly since the federal government's changes in taxation policy that has had an impact around residential. But we're circa around, best case, two years from construction commencement of that. So again, we're focused on getting the approvals in place. over the course of the next short period of time. We would hope to then inform the market of the execution strategy, ideally through this fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Carl Braganza with Jordan. Please go ahead.

Morning, Peter, Adrian. Thanks for your time. A few questions from me. The first one was on Uptown. I think the total cost range have increased by $50 million versus what you flagged at the first half. What's given that change?

Hey, Kyle, it's Peter. Probably a couple of things. We spent the last six months in really detailed due diligence, hand-in-hand with Hutchinson Builders, who we've employed in the pre-construction phase. And it's a brownfield development, so there is some additional costs associated with plant and equipment replacements around compliance. That's one component of it. The second component is as we've gone through design development, there's some income accretive opportunities that require some capital to go into the project that we've included within the scope and will be included shortly within the development approvals with the Brisbane City Council. We've talked them through those enhancements as well. They fundamentally represent the two major items that have led to the revision in that cost range. I would say the return range remains the same and we'd be hopeful, similar to the projects we've just delivered, that they could also improve. We would update the market fully. We would expect to be pretty much completed, ready to commence by the time of the fiscal half year.

And then the final one from me was what was the yield on the Teagan Scloucer?

but the passing yield on sales is essentially around the 6%. Perfect.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from David Babacki with Macquarie Group. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Peter, Adrian and team. Thanks for taking my questions.

Just the first one on capital recycling.

I spent the last number of years upgrading portfolio quality as well as recycling regional assets. So just curious to understand how much more portfolio repositioning and recycling is required and what might that look like in terms of acquisitions and disposals going forward?

Hi David, it's Peter. It's probably fair enough to say we've broken the back of it. David, I think we've sold 16 assets in the last three years and the funding of that has really been our main source of funding for acquisition and development activity. It's also led to a meaningful upgrade of our portfolio quality. We have Box Hill North on the market presently at the moment and that's one that we haven't transacted at this particular point in time but it's been publicly marketed. There might be one or two other assets that's subject to opportunity. of the opportunity being obviously to further increase the quality of our portfolio and subject to it being value accretive that we could trade either at 100% or potentially bring in a joint venture partner. But I would suggest that we're materially through the asset divestment program that we had envisaged in the core of our portfolio.

Thank you. And just the second one. around consumer and retail trends. Sales have remained relatively resilient. So just any kind of feedback or commentary you can provide on trading post the end of the fiscal year? Have you observed any kind of increase in retailer requests for rent relief for lease renegotiations. It's a training that you can share. Thank you.

Typically July is a fairly quiet period in terms of lease transaction conclusions. In context it probably represents only about 25% of the activity of June, which is a very active year. In terms of rent relief, no material uplift in either determinations or requests. From a retail sales point of view, it might be helpful for those on the call. We essentially finished July at around about a 3% positive comp growth. And importantly, particularly across many majors and specialties, that was around 4%. So that was an uptick versus both May and particularly June. We still feel as though whilst sales in this half of the year or in 2026 aren't as strong as the back half of 2025, we still feel as though they're quite resilient. I'll be probably a little choppy through the year. They're hard to predict. Thanks, Peter.

And our next question today comes from James Drews at CLSA. Let's go ahead.

Yeah, good morning, Peter and Adrian. Just on the sales in July, do you think there's any World Cup effects coming through there, or is that just a general pick-up?

No, it's an interesting one, James. I'm not sure if it's a World Cup, but what we are seeing, which is an interesting trend in these particular times, is things such as food caterings for people going out to restaurants, jewellery... cinemas, so they're sort of simple luxuries. They've all actually been trading above the average. Probably it's some sort of more moderate sales and more within our major retailers, department stores, supermarkets and discount department stores. We've only just rolled up July, James, so probably haven't got the fine detail of whether there's any World Cup influence on that or not.

Okay, one more if I may. Just on... Actually, two more. In catchments where house prices are falling more aggressively that we have centres, are you seeing that impact come through or is it largely sort of pretty immune at the moment?

James, I think we need to have a... We're typically... two to four weeks behind in terms of culminating our sales data so we'll probably need to have a solid period of about six months to determine if there is any impact associated with that. We're clearly conscious of the fact that value within house prices has a positive correlation with consumer confidence and then there's obviously a correlation to consumer expenditure from there and that's something that we're mindful of and that we'll watch through. At this particular point in time sales are fairly consistent across the portfolio. We've seen really strong sales in our CBDs which is great to see, even Melbourne CBD despite the sort of rhetoric around Melbourne CBD and other property classifications. Probably where we're seeing it is Victoria more generally slightly down in terms of sales, productivity versus the rest of the country.

Okay, that's clear. One more if I may. I think at the start of the year you're going to around 400ml of capex for 26. I think you came in at 350. Just wondering what sort of gave you that little boost to spend less by the end of the year?

Yeah, this is Adrian here. Thanks, James. We end up about 330ml all up for the year. Some of that is probably just some delayed starts on a couple of the projects, particularly around incentives for Chatswood. It's a very timing-specific kind of impact where some of the incentives spent for Chatswood actually goes into FY27. So it's really just around the edges on incentives and pushing some capex into FY27.

Okay, that's clear. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Howard Penny, Citi. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much and congrats on the results. Just a first question. It's just thinking about ideas in the market and one of the things we've seen is some of the bigger shopping centre owners setting down some significant stakes in their core assets and and effectively earning some fees and increasing the return on equity on their investment. Is that something that's on the desk of vicinity and potential for you?

Hi Howard, it's Peter. We have done that over the last four years in our core assets. The Nikos Group, which is a strong joint venture partner of ours, a private family business, has transacted across three 50% shares of our core regional assets, two in South Australia and two in Victoria, over the last three years so that we sit side by side as a 50% partnership and we do earn fees from that in terms of our management rights. That still remains our preferred model. We're different than others in the market. We're probably more similar to Westfield where we're We like to put our capital at play from a balance sheet and particularly on our premium assets where they have higher growth. We'd prefer to have our capital also achieving that higher growth and then earn fees on top. We're not a fund manager per se.

Thank you very much. And then just another question. Are the portfolios post the developments producing great organic growth and leasing up? but just thinking back to those inorganic strategies and putting more capital beyond the uptown development, etc., are there new developments and extensions beyond that that you're getting closer to pressing the button on or acquisitions? How are you thinking about those inorganic activities over the next two years?

Look, we're obviously acquisitive. Essentially we've bought six assets in six years, roughly about one per year. We're highly selective in terms of them and hence things such as Uptown and DFO Eastern Creek really had to meet quite a select criteria in terms of meeting the requirements for the portfolio quality we want to have moving forward. There are a number of assets that are in the market that would be attractive for us either in their existing form or today in their existing form and with development opportunities. In terms of our development pipeline itself, we're sequentially moving through them. So we obviously moved from Chadstone into Chatswood, moving into now the opening of Galleria when that opens and we'll then move into the start of Uptown. We're doing a little lot of projects at Chadstone at the moment with Luxury at Castle Plaza, at Grand Plaza. So I suppose what I'm getting at, Howard, It's a capital intensive industry and we like to invest capital as long as there's the appropriate return and as long as that capital is selectively allocated to make sure it makes its best return and then make those assets more contemporary for not only the communities that they serve but also for the key leading retailers that we do business with. So I would anticipate moving forward into the future at this particular point in time we don't have another significant development planned at this point in time, but we'll always have those $20 million to $60 million interventions into assets as long as they're making the appropriate returns.

Thank you, Peter, and congrats once again.

Thanks, Howard.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Simon Check and Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Hey, Pete, I know it's early days, but the Centre's been training for a number of months now. Chancellor Chase, what do you reckon is the occupancy cost at the moment, spec occupancy cost?

Simon, it's probably, right at the moment, it's probably around the 15% to 16%, I would say. We typically run luxury retailers on a lower occupancy cost, and that's traditional across anywhere, to be honest. So they typically run sub-10%. I would anticipate some of the non-food retailers are probably running around that 18% to 20% occupancy. That's a reason why we have stabilisation in there as well to make sure that we establish its market area through marketing and we do provide a little bit of a rental assistance to some areas of new developments to ensure that they hit their mark and then the food's trading extremely well. So that's probably how I'd summarise Chatsworth at the moment. It's still very early days. We only opened Hermes. five or six weeks ago. And that was a key retailer to really start driving traffic through there.

Yeah, I've been there already, Pete. Just FYI. But 15% to 16%, is that what was in the fees? So based on your comments, once it's fully stabilised in, say, 18 months, 24 months' time, in theory, it should be below 15% to 16%. Is that fair?

Yeah probably because food will trade slightly below that and the luxury will trade probably sub 10. So if you exclude luxury out of it, it should be around that 17% to 19% OCR mark.

Okay cool and just to clarify, so the eventual yield, the stabilised yield has gone from 6% to 6.7%. What sort of yield have you factored in for FY27?

So for 27, we're essentially around 5%.

Okay, that's good.

So on a running year, it generally gets to 5 for 27, a bit over 6 for 28, and it will hit the stabilised yield ideally at the start of FY29. Yeah, good stuff. Thanks, mate. It may be helpful as well. I mean, the target... from a sales point of view, we basically have that around about $850 million. And we're trading, you know, we won't know that until we have a good run rate of six months to see how close we are to that number.

$850. Thanks.

Thank you. And our next question today comes from Thomas Ryan at Green Street. Please go ahead.

in the same pace of the time. Just a question on... Obviously, you've done a lot of work already in terms of portfolio curation, and I just wanted to ask, looking at the revaluations that you've posted in your results, are you comfortable with the current sort of lens in terms of that breakdown? Of course, it's Chadston, but in terms of how you've curated the portfolio into greater, you know, exposure to outlets and less into regional, sub-regional assets? and how can we sort of see that profile over the next 12 months in terms of how you're thinking about re-evaluations and where you're pushing the income the most?

That is a very good question. I'm not sure if I have a very good answer. We are happy with the portfolio composition, so we're clearly focused on CBDs, we're clearly focused on outlets and we're clearly focused on assets such as Chadston, Chatswood and Lakeside Ginger, which we purchased. we see that typically the growth rates on those assets have been closer to 6% from a Comp NPI growth versus the standard portfolio which is closer to 3%. We do foresee, subject to all things being equal, that that will continue to occur in those assets and hence that's the reason when opportunities do present themselves in the market where we see we can add value, they typically align with those premium outlets or assets such as Lakeside Joondalup, which we've purchased 50% off. We don't have a breakdown number of exactly what FY27 is going to look like on valves for those assets, but we would anticipate that it would be similar to what's occurred in the last 12 months.

Thanks for that. And just to follow up on Carl's earlier question on that one asset that you're about to settle on in terms of that divestment in Queensland, obviously it was, I think in the notes, it sort of mentions there it was on the book value from 30 June last year. I was just wondering if you had it marked as June this year in terms of where that landed relative to that number, if you could have a date in June.

Yeah, the number in our... June accounts reflects that $120 million sale value. Got it.

Thanks for that.

Thank you. And as there are no further questions at this time, I'll now hand back to Mr. Huddle for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. And look, just on behalf of myself and Adrian and the broader vicinity team, I'd just like to thank the analysts for their interest in our company and we look forward to catching up with you independently over the next day or so and answer any further questions in more detail. Thank you again.