This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
IN only the fourth metropolitan neighbourhood centre sale in WA for the year, Woolworths anchored Coolbellup Village Shopping Centre has been snapped up by APIL for $20.5 million.
The near new shopping centre is a non-discretionary focused convenience neighbourhood asset approximately 15km south west of the Perth CBD, on a 8,925sqm corner site.
The property was sold by JLL’s director of sales and investments, Sean Flynn and head of sales and investments, Nigel Freshwater, to the Perth-based syndicator.
As well as being anchored by the supermarket tenant, the centre includes five specialty stores, across 3,768sqm of total GLA, as well as 180 at-grade car spaces.
The Coolbellup Village opened in December 2018 in was apparently the last 15-year lease signed by Woolworths in WA, delivering a centre WALE of over 11 years.
“With such low exposure to vacancy risk, a strong Woolworths covenant, defendable retail trade catchment and long WALE, we fully expected the sale to achieve the lowest yield ever realised for a neighbourhood shopping centre in WA at a little over 5.5%,” said Flynn.
“Whilst the yield we achieved represents a record for WA, recent similar transactions in New South Wales and Victoria in particular have shown yields dipping well below 5%, notwithstanding the investment fundamentals of a new Woolworths anchored metro neighbourhood centre are in essence the same whether it’s situated in WA or these other states,” added Freshwater.
“In this case our buyer is a very seasoned operator who is active in all of these national markets and we believe the sale therefore represented an attractive opportunity for their syndicate, delivering a higher projected annual return than would have been achievable for a similar asset in Sydney or Melbourne, effectively without any additional risk,” said Freshwater, of the Coolbellup Village sale.
