AI, warehouse demand sheds new light on industrial property deals

Unrelenting demand for warehouses and data centres has encouraged investors and developers to pump $1 billion-plus into industrial property transactions over the past month.

A lack of new warehouse supply, the AI-driven boom in data centres and buyers’ desire to pivot away from weak office towers into sheds are underpinning the deals.

Dexus Wholesale Fund has sold industrial sites worth $150 million.Credit:

Global investment manager Barings last week landed the biggest deal of the year so far when, in partnership with super fund Rest, it scooped up an industrial portfolio worth $780 million from Goodman Group.

The 12 warehouses with 17 tenants are on 70 hectares of land with sheds totalling 340,000 square metres in Sydney and Melbourne. The warehouses host global top-tier companies like Metcash, Super Retail Group, Pack Rack, Iron Mountain and Amazon as tenants.

Barings and Rest’s new portfolio includes the largest wholesale distribution centre in Australia, a 115,000 square metre behemoth in Melbourne’s west that is leased to Metcash. It will be Metcash’s main distribution facility, providing an ambient warehouse with significant automation technology, a chiller and freezer area, and a modern new office.

Barings’ executive director of real estate Shaun Hannah said the $780 million acquisition reflects the company’s positive outlook for industrial property in Australia.

“[It] aligns with our investment strategy of targeting to buy existing leased buildings with significant underlying land value at attractive pricing,” he said.

Not to be outdone, fund manager ISPT completed its $190 million Charles Sturt industrial estate in Adelaide, while the Dexus Wholesale Australian Property Fund has sold industrial sites worth $150 million in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Hotel veteran Bruce Solomon is taking advantage of the booming sector, offloading prime land in Sydney’s south. “We are looking to sell what we see as non-core assets as we look at boosting our hospitality business,” Solomon said.

Solotel, run by Solomon and business partner Matt Moran, is selling developable land at 176-180 O’Riordan Street in Mascot, about 6500 square metres, with price expectations above $16 million.

Colliers’ Michael Crombie and Trent Gallagher said Mascot, near Sydney’s airport, already boasts heavy-weight tenants like LOGOS, Qantas, Charter Hall and Goodman. The suburb has strong occupier demand and historically low vacancy levels around 2.5 per cent.

Crombie said multiple developments are in planning or underway in the suburb.

The portfolio includes a 115,000-square metre Metcash distribution centre in Melbourne.

Fund manager Centuria Industrial REIT last month launched Melbourne’s newest industrial estate in Campbellfield, a $116 million project called M80 Connect half of which is already pre-leased. The super-prime facility at 100 Bolinda Road has five warehouses totalling 45,375 square metres on a 7.92 hectare site.

Burgeoning ecommerce and the trend to onshore supply chains are creating more jobs and supporting other expanding industries like infrastructure, logistics and retail that need sheds to operate, Centuria’s head of funds management Jesse Curtis said

MSCI’s Pacific head of research Benjamin Martin-Henry said specialist industrial funds are the only property category to record positive total returns.

“The industrial sector, while still subdued, is seeing increased interest in specialised areas like data centres, driven by the burgeoning demand for advanced technology infrastructure,” he said.

Greg Goodman said at the recent quarterly update that logistics customers are increasing demand for assets with high automation and technology, which are seen as the “structural drivers of the digital economy”.

“This, and the limited supply of space in our markets, is supporting the underlying property fundamentals in our portfolio, with high levels of occupancy and income growth,” Goodman said.

“We are progressing on our data centre strategy and are reviewing additional sites for potential data centre use,” he said.

Also in Sydney’s south, an infill industrial landholding is being sold with price expectations of more than $40 million. The 16,326 square metre property is near Port Botany and Foreshore Road at 60-66 Perry Street and 1 Kelly Street, Matraville.

Colliers and The Agency are managing the sale on behalf of Orcades Investments, which has owned the property for more than 50 years.

“This flagship site is such a rare offering of scale within the South Sydney industrial precinct which is the most tightly held market in the country, and it offers so much upside through rental reversion and re-development,” Colliers’ Trent Gallagher said.

The Agency’s Michael Laing said values in infill industrial markets like Matraville increased significantly last year, as buyers preferred them over outer ring industrial areas. “We expect this trend to continue,” he said.

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.