This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Homeworld Helensvale centre has sold for $265 million, setting a record transaction figure for a Queensland large format retail as well as the largest deal in the sector nationally since 2017.
It had been speculated for some time that a $300 million deal was close with interests associated with the Shayher Group, linked to Taiwanese developer the Par Jar Group.
Anchored by Fantastic Furniture, JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys, Homeworld Helensvale comprises a 36,000 sqm centre in addition to 7.34 hectares of developable vacant land strategically positioned at the highly trafficked junction of Hope Island Road and the Pacific Motorway.
The high-profile site spans over 20 hectares and has preliminary approval for showroom, retail, medical and indoor recreation, and office expansion. Approval for high-density residential, hotel and retirement living has also been granted.
Homeworld Helensvale is 95% occupied and has a 2.8-year weighted average lease expiry by gross income across its 36 large format retail tenancies, a health and medical hub, a dining quarter, four office tenancies, 13 specialty retailers and an Ampol petrol station.
Colliers agents Lachlan MacGillivray and Stewart Gilchrist, together with Philip Gartland of Stonebridge, managed the expressions of interest campaign. They said there was engagement with a strong mixture of domestic and offshore groups and interest from high net worth privates, institutional groups and developers.
They said a high net worth private investor acquired Homeworld Helensvale.
The Les Ansley family was the vendor, which partnered with Macpro Properties on the development.
ASX-listed Goodman Group recently bought the entire Alexandria Homemaker Centre site in Sydney’s inner south for $200 million, on a yield of below 4%, The 3.4 hectare site, which has The Good Guys, Spotlight, Forty Winks and Bing Lee outlets, was bought from Arkadia.
Meanwhile, AsheMorgan has been shopping around one of Australia’s most expansive large format retail assets, the 14.3 hectare Crossroad Centre property, with expectations of $300 million.
The large-format retail sector had a strong 2020 and 2021, proving resilient to major challenges presented by the pandemic, with yields compressing 105 basis points over the two years to the end of 2021. This was helped by the open-air nature of the centres and their diverse tenant mixes, largely weighted to resilient retail categories such as household goods, which saw a 23% uptick since the onset of COVID.
