Navigating the Changing of the Guard in Property Leadership
Property leadership in Australia is shifting. Long-tenured CEOs and CFOs are stepping aside. Tony Lombardo’s plan to step down as Lendlease CEO in August is the latest proof point. Boards are getting more explicit about what they’re actually hiring for in the next cycle.
And this isn’t just a property story. Across November and December 2025 alone, the AICD’s ASX-listed director movement lists logged 97 appointments and 106 departures (Nov: 54/76; Dec: 43/30). That level of turnover is boards reshaping the table heading into 2026.
What we are hearing? Rates matter again. Funding is less forgiving. Scrutiny has tightened. Sustainability and governance have moved from “nice to have” to “show me how it works in practice.” Property isn’t moving as one market (it never did). What’s changed is how sharply the differences show up by asset type and geography.
Land and subdivisions have been more resilient than many expected. Perth and SEQ are the obvious examples people keep pointing to. Built-form has simply been harder, not because anyone forgot how to deliver, but because the operating environment has been stubborn: costs, counterparties, delivery uncertainty. The whole system has demanded more conservatism. Frustratingly so. Australia needs to build. Defence is opening up land with 67 properties on the market, some like Point Cook, quite significant. Things feel steadier than they were, but boards have kept the posture they learned in the last few years, assume less, re-check more, protect downside, keep capital disciplined.
Office is on the rise. Sydney’s prime story has improved over multiple quarters; liquidity returns when the fundamentals stop wobbling, and we’re hearing core capital has started to re-engage. Melbourne remains the stubborn outlier. Whatever anyone thinks politically, capital reacts to settings, and sentiment has a way of hardening into “policy risk.”
Leadership is refreshing faster than it’s diversifying. The senior pool is still narrower than many boards would like, and the “safe” appointment profile remains strong true to form. The CEW Senior Executive Census 2025 is a blunt mirror here: across the ASX300, women held about 10% of CEO roles, while the Real Estate sector recorded 0% women CEOs. Women held 29% of executive leadership team roles and 16% of CEO pipeline roles.
If you want proof this is real, you don’t need opinion. You need appointments.
Lifestyle Communities appointed Henry Ruiz as CEO, effective 5 March 2025.
Arena REIT announced a CEO transition, with Justin Bailey appointed CEO-designate. The handover is expected after the November 2025 AGM, with a commencement flagged for March 2026.
Stockland appointed Josh McHutchison as CFO, expected to commence in early August 2025, and subsequently referenced him joining in August 2025.
GPT appointed Merran Edwards as CFO (effective no later than 1 July 2024) and has since referenced that appointment as part of a broader executive capability build-out.
We can read these as boards placing bets.
What’s also changing is the brief beneath the title. Boards still want fundamentals: capital discipline, credibility with investors, the ability to hold a long cycle without losing momentum. What’s now sitting inside the job is the extra weight people used to treat as adjacent. Sustainability that is operationally real. Technology that produces genuine leverage in decision-making and reporting. Portfolio strategy that doesn’t spook capital.
The AI conversation is part of it, but the “AI theatre” phase is fading. What’s left is practical: does it sharpen decisions, does it tighten reporting, is there a use case without burning people out with change that rewires not just the week, but the day.
For property leaders, bench strength is strategy. The best time to build depth is when you don’t urgently need it, when you still have time to shape the team. That time is now.
Where Blenheim fits.
This is the territory we work in: moments where the cost of getting it wrong is real, and the upside of getting it right is in the millions. We bring context, serious research, straight judgement, and a strong point of view on what the role actually requires in the real world. We also track board and executive movement closely because it helps clients make decisions earlier, and with more clarity. And by our internal tracking, we’ve delivered a 100% completion rate on retained executive mandates over 14 years.
If you’re thinking about succession, strengthening your bench, or you can feel an inflection point coming, I’d welcome a conversation. We aim to be the go-to property search firm in Australia, and we’re ready to prove why.
Seph McKenna
Partner, Insurance, Property and Media