Lendlease has agreed to sell 12 Australian master-planned residential community projects to Stockland and its capital partner, Supalai Australia Holdings, for A$1.3bn (€800m).

Stockland will hold a 50.1% interest in a new vehicle, Stockland Residential Communities Partnership (SRCP), which has been set up to hold the Lendlease community projects totalling 27,600 lots. The Australian subsidiary of the Thai property group, Supalai, will have a 49.9% interest in SRCP.

“The acquisition represents a step-change in the reshaping of our portfolio and accelerates the execution of our strategy by increasing our capital allocations towards residential sectors,” said Tarun Gupta, Stockland’s managing director and chief executive officer.

The joint venture with Supalai had scaled up Stockland’s capital partnership platform, which would generate new sources of recurring income, he said.

Supalai PCL chairman and CEO, Prateep Tangmatitham said: “We have been actively investing in the Australian residential sector since 2014. This investment further demonstrates our confidence in the underlying drivers of the market, and provides us with exposure to a high-quality, well-located portfolio of communities in partnership with one of Australia’s leading residential developers.”

The Bangkok-listed Supalai took a 50% stake in Stockland’s Katalia master-planned project in Melbourne in 2020.

Stockland’s CEO of development, Andrew Whitson, said the acquisition had been secured on attractive terms with active projects that were well-positioned to ramp up development activities into a potential recovery in the residential cycle.

Lendlease Global CEO, Tony Lombardo, said the transaction communities provided the group with an opportunity to crystalise the value it had created in these projects.

“We remain focussed on recycling capital to accelerate our investments-led strategy and to maintain balance sheet flexibility to pursue future opportunities.”

Lendlease is also selling its retirement living platforms. Lombardo said: “Processes for further capital recycling initiatives, including China Senior Living and Australian Retirement Living, remain ongoing.”

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