Sydney Westpoint Sale Sets $900m Retail Record

Sydney’s Westpoint Shopping Centre has sold for around $900 million in the largest individual retail asset transaction in Australian history

In its first Australian retail deal, the US-based Hines has partnered with Australian property management firm Haben to pick up the centre at Blacktown from QIC, who has held it for 34 years.

QIC is the Queensland Government’s investment company.

The centre, 35km north-west of the Sydney CBD, has a GLA of 95,000sq m, 254 retail stores, 1250sq m of co-working space, 4378 parking spaces and is visited by 15.3 million people annually, according to its website.

One of the biggest centres in Sydney’s west, it opened in 1973.

It is the first 100 per cent interest in a regional shopping centre to be transacted in Sydney’s metro area since Top Ryde in 2012.

The deal breaks the record set by 2017’s $800-million sale of Indooroopilly Shopping Centre in Queensland. Adjusted for inflation, that sale would now be worth $950 million.

The sale is subject to Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval.

▲ The centre at Blacktown first opened in the 1970s.

Haben managing director and co-founder Ben Finger said Westpoint Shopping Centre was a “significant asset offering core retail and mixed-use zoning in one of Sydney's fastest-growing metro areas”.

“This acquisition presents a strategic opportunity to partner with Hines on their first Australian retail acquisition, establishing one of the largest retail partnerships in Australia.”

QIC Town Centre Fund manager Michael Fattouh said the deal “reflects performance driven by 34 years of active management”. 

The sale was managed by Colliers. Managing director, Asia Pacific retail capital markets Lachlan MacGillivray said the asset “possesses all the key attributes investors are seeking: a large Sydney metro landholding, proximity to major roads, and co-location with a train station and bus interchange”.