AsheMorgan Picks Up Dexus Retail Centre for $79m

Property investors AsheMorgan has acquired a major big box format retail centre in Sydney’s Prospect for $78.9 million. 

Real estate investment trust company Dexus sold its stake in Homemaker Prospect, a 26,000 sqm centre with 28 showrooms, after acquiring the site in 2019 for $64.2 million.

Two kilometres from Blacktown and 32km west of the Sydney CBD, Homemaker Prospect at 19 Stoddart Road includes outlets for  Fantastic Furniture, The Good Guys, Snooze, Beacon Lighting and Bing Lee. 

The large format retail sector has experienced a major uptick in recent years, in part a result of travel bans and lockdowns during the pandemic. 

JLL’s Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher handled the sale, saying it was the latest deal in an upward trend for the category.

“The sale of Prospect Homemaker takes the total LFR sales volume for 2022 to a five-year high and reflects the intensified demand for LFR assets because of the category’s resilience over the past two years,” Willis said. 

Hatcher said that the subsector had performed “exceptionally well”.

“[It has recorded] the most significant yield compression across all retail sub-sectors in 2020 and 2021 with yields tightening by 105 basis points between the end of 2019 and the final quarter of 2021,” he said.

According to JLL Research, household goods spending remains elevated at 31 per cent above pre-pandemic levels as a result of ongoing strong demand for home office furniture and equipment, a surge in renovation activity, and the subsequent heightened demand for home refurbishment products and furnishings.

In fact, of the five largest retail transactions completed in Australia this year, three were large format retail assets.

They included the $282-million sale of Crossroads Homemaker by AsheMorgan to LaSalle Investment Management, as well as the $265-million deal for Homeworld Helensvale, and Alexandria Homemaker’s sale to Goodman for $200 million.