This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PAN Asia industrial player, ESR-LOGOS REIT has defied the repricing of asset values in the market, by offloading a logistics facility in Melbourne’s western suburbs, home to Arrow Transport, for $65.5 million.
The Altona property, at 182-198 Maidstone Street, is trading at a 7.4% premium to the property’s most recent valuation of $61.0 million.
It has a total net lettable area of 37,862 sqm.
On completion of the divestment, ESR-LOGOS REIT will have 71 properties located across Singapore, Japan and Australia, as well as investments in three property funds in Australia.
Announcement of the deal comes the same week as another Singapore-listed group, Straits Trading Company sold an Adelaide distribution centre it developed for $52.7 million – nearly $12 million below book value.
The 34 Share Street property in Kilkenny, in the city’s inner north west, was valued at the end of December at $64.25 million. It was acquired in 2018 by a joint venture between Commercial & General and Straits Real Estate as part of a $130.5 million portfolio. The Kilkenny property made up $11.59 million worth of the deal, with the buyers proposing to demolish the existing building on the site and construct purpose-built office and warehouse for a national tenant.
A recent Cushman & Wakefield survey revealed that 86% of investors favour the Australian logistics and industrial market over other commercial property sectors, ahead of debt markets and alternative assets, with $45 billion of capital circling warehouses and sheds down under. One in two respondents confirmed that the gap in purchaser and vendor pricing expectations prevented capital deployment in 2023. Now, almost nine in ten plan to invest in Australian logistics and industrial assets in 2024.
Another Singapore-listed company, Keppel REIT, has just acquired a 50% stake in Sydney CBD office building 255 George Street for $363.8 million, on a 6% plus yield.
