September uptick for Stockland residential offerings
Property developer Stockland is upbeat about the outlook for new residential housing after it achieved 499 net deposits in September for its residential community projects out of a total of 1,092 deposits taken for the three month to September 30.
The September result was the best monthly result since October last year and follows Stockland’s annual spring marketing campaign.
The figures reflected strong sales in recently launched projects at Allura in Melbourne, Vale in Queensland and Whiteman Edge in Perth. In addition, Stockland says there is “strong interest in its Brooks Reach development in NSW, to be launched next week.
“Improved momentum has continued this month and while two months doesn’t represent a trend, the figures are encouraging,” the developer reported at its AGM in Sydney.
It also highlighted a “positive shift in market sentiment”, which started in late August, “particularly in the key south-east Queensland market, which was soft following the floods earlier this year”.
Stockland says the Queensland government $10,000 Building Boost Grant (available to anyone building or buying a new home in Queensland under $600,000 between August 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012) had improved sentiment and activity in this market.
“While sales in Victoria are down from the very high levels of a year ago, they seem to be stabilising,” it adds.
Managing director Matthew Quinn says the first-quarter figures firstly demonstrate a recent general improvement in customer sentiment and buying activity at Stockland projects and secondly shows that the focus on high-quality, affordable products is bearing fruit with outperformance against key benchmarks.
“Our goal is to cater for diverse groups [of customers], providing affordable housing solutions built around community hubs with high-quality retail centres, social infrastructure and employment generating facilities,” he told shareholders.
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