Westfield shopping centre owner Scentre Group is considering building residential apartments above its properties.
Scentre’s portfolio includes 42 Westfield shopping areas in Australia and New Zealand.
“Our Westfield destinations are located in and around existing civic and transport hubs — places where densification is already occurring,” said Scentre CEO Elliott Rusanow.
“These substantial land holdings, when combined with their strategic locations, have the potential to be part of addressing the housing supply issues in both countries. We expect this will provide the group with significant long-term growth opportunities.”
The New South Wales government said it would accelerate rezoning to build apartments in the area around Sydney’s Westfield Hornsby last month. This could allow for towers of up to 53 storeys above the shopping centre.
Westfield Hornsby could house $1.5 billion of new apartments, with more than 2,300 units.
According to Morgan Stanley estimates, the development rights could be sold for $230 million.
Sydney’s Westfield Parramatta was also zoned to add 220-metre commercial towers in 2021, another property where Scentre Group is reportedly considering building apartments.
“Densification, such as what can happen at our destinations, is actually a logical part of helping solve the supply issue with regards to housing,” said Rusanow. “And that’s because our destinations are co-located next to already built infrastructure, or infrastructure that is planned to come, be it transport nodes, rail, light rail, bus, the Suburban Rail Loop, for example.”
Scentre’s (ASX: SCG) share price stood at $3.45 as of 12 pm AEDT, following a previous close of $3.47. Its market cap is $17.9 billion.