Freeing Up Capital: Opportunities for Real Estate Corporate Owner-Occupiers

CBRE Research recently analysed the land and buildings held on balance sheets across 40 ASX200/NZX50 listed companies. What we discovered was that well over $AU24 billion of capital could be unlocked and reinvested into higher returning opportunities in the Materials, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Transport and Industrial sectors in Australia and New Zealand.

There is strong demand from listed and unlisted property funds for long-term leased properties. The ability to capitalise on improving market values, dispose of under-utilised assets and acquire capital to fund other business strategies are just some of the reasons why listed corporates are targeting owner-occupier sales. In the Pacific region alone, there has been a well-worn path of owner-occupier real with c.AU$11 billion already realised over the past five years.

With significant yield compression evident across all commercial asset types since 2015, particularly in the industrial property sector, the opportunity could be even higher than our initial AU$24 billion estimate as corporates in Australia and New Zealand revisit their property occupancy strategies to unlock value.

This article was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/