Scenario: Congratulations! You are now appointed as an Asset Manager of an Austr

Scenario:
Congratulations! You are now appointed as an Asset Manager of an Australian property asset management company operating its business across Australia. Your first task as an Asset Manager is to prepare a report containing detailed analysis of a shopping centre in SA, linking its strategic aspects of the centre with local socio-economic data and other relevant material introduced in the course. Furthermore, you are required to carry out some simple financial analysis.
Available options to choose:
Sefton Plaza Shopping Centre, Sefton Park
Please do not try to contact centre management or tenants to obtain information to complete this assessment. Instead, you can utilise their website, news articles, publications, and other resources accessible through the Internet.
Format/Assessment Criteria:
This report needs to be prepared using the below headings. You may include photos, tables, graphs and floor plans as long as they are relevant, properly captioned (e.g. Table 1. XXX) and discussed in the main text. Referencing in accordance with the APA referencing system is required. You are to provide a word count for the report.
1. The Centre Descriptions (5 Marks)
This section requires descriptions about your chosen shopping centre including its location, centre category and the current shopping centre management (e.g. Westfield, Mirvac, Stockland, etc.). A breakdown of the tenancy type (based on Supermarket, Menswear, Women’s fashion, etc. See Table 1 under the “Financial Analysis” section for further details) as well as discussions on the “magnet” of the centre should be also included (there may be more than one magnet!). Any other introductory information such as a number of car parking and GLAR can be also included.
2. The Centre Operations (20 Marks)
This section requires discussing the operational side of the centre. This typically involves the ease of finding tenants and the natural traffic flows within the centre. Further, you need to identify the “magnet” of the centre and why, followed by discussions on how they might impact on overall centre operations. By inspecting the centre, you may be also able to identify and discuss current vacancies (if any) and “dead spots”. Besides, any unique features or strategies currently adopted by the centre to gain competitive advantages in the market should be also discussed. For example, your centre may be one of the “green” certified shopping centres.
3. Catchment Area Analysis (20 marks)
This section requires defining the “catchment” areas of the chosen centre (there may be more than one catchment areas). This should be followed by discussing demographics of the identified catchment area and what those demographics tell us about the shoppers and the centre operations. If you expect any changes of the catchment area in the near future, it can be also discussed here. Some useful resources to complete this section include the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and profile.id. Keep in mind that simply copying and pasting demographic information without discussing their implications specific to your centre may lead to 0 mark in this section.
4. Competitor Analysis (20 marks)
This section requires discussing at least two current or potential competitors of the centre. This should include providing descriptions on identified competitors as well as their advantages and disadvantages compared to your centre. You should also highlight if any of these competitors at least partially share the catchment area of your chosen centre. Lastly, suggest and discuss at least one interstate or overseas shopping centre suitable for benchmarking. Similar to the above, simply copying and pasting generic information without acknowledge their sources may lead to 0 mark in this section.
5. Financial Analysis (10 Marks)
This section requires using very simple maths and an understanding of the term “Net Income Multiplier” (NIM) which was discussed in Discovering Opportunities in Property (BUSS 1055) course. You are now required to assume that you are asked by your boss to establish the viability of upgrading the shopping centre. Rents as follows (before and after upgrade):
Table 1 The centre tenancy and rental profile
Tenancy type
Number of stores in this category*
Size
(square metres)
Current net rent
(Per square metre per year)
Proposed net rent
(Per square metre per year)
Supermarket
2,500
210
380
Menswear
290
450
460
Women’s fashion
400
400
420
Café/restaurants
100
530
540
Banks and services
70
650
600
Fresh food
80
450
460
Other
190
600
600
*below columns should be completed based on the actual numbers of tenants you identified from your chosen centre
After consultation with the centre management, their architects and builders have proposed to upgrade the centre in various ways, including upgrading the external appearance of the centre with greater signage and visual display of tenancies, extending the landscaping area to provide more pleasurable experience for shoppers, to upgrade the air-conditioning of the centre and to provide further and more modern lighting internally. Total cost will be as follows:
$21,000,00
The current NIM for a centre of this nature has been determined to be 19.2. After consultation with a valuer, it has also been determined that the NIM appropriate for the centre AFTER the proposed upgrade will be changed to 19.5.
You are to establish the followings using an excel sheet. Using the given Excel spreadsheet, you will first have to insert appropriate formulas, then you can simply copy and paste the excel into the word document. Eventually, this section must present the followings:
The “current” and “proposed” market net rent for the whole centre
The percentage increase in rent from “current to proposed” for the whole centre
The “current” and “proposed” market value of the centre (based on the NIM as provided)
The “actual” dollar and “percentage” increase in value of the centre
“Percentage” of return on capital expenditure (i.e. return on expenditure)
And most importantly, “discussions” on whether the return on capital expenditure is good or poor
6. Conclusions and Recommendations (20 Marks)
This section hardly requires any explanations. But keep in mind that you need to present at least three recommended practices to raise the competitive advantage of your centre after presenting conclusions of your report. Similar to your discussions in other sections, these recommendations must be supported by proper justifications.
7. Referencing and presentation (5 Marks)
This report should be referenced appropriately, both “in text” and “end of text” using the APA referencing guideline. See below for further guidance on how this will be addressed from a marking perspective. Your mark for this section will be dictated by not only how appropriately you have referenced but also for the extent to which you have researched and referenced appropriately.
Additional information on assessment criteria:
In addition to the general assessment criteria discussed within this report, the following specific criteria will apply to the grading of your assignment:
How well your statements and arguments are supported by data from trustful sources (i.e do NOT use Wikipedia)
How well you provided a link between each section. So, in expressing an idea about the centre you should provide evidence (“justification”) of confirming views arising from a reading or other study material including lectures.
PLEASE NOTE: The assumption is that your report is prepared in a professional, business-like manner; if it is, your mark for the section REPORT STANDARD will be zero. It is zero because this is the standard expected.
You will be penalised if the report is grossly substandard (for instance not adopting the headings as required, numerous spelling and grammatical errors, inadequate referencing and or significant deviation from the required words required). Significant deviation would amount to 10-15% above or below the stated wordcount range.
Students submitting their report after the due date will attract a penalty of 10% (of the total available mark) every day. You can upload a draft, which you can then revisit and update if you need, however, whatever is in the system at the due date is the assignment that will be marked. Again, extensions can be given only when it is allowed by the University’s Academic Policy. Staff will aim to mark assignments within 10 working days of receiving them but no longer than 15 working days.