AMP Sells Sydney Homemaker Centre for $140m

Real estate investment group Ashe Morgan has snapped up the Crossroads Homemaker Centre, the seventh largest of its kind in Australia, for $140 million in Sydney's southwest.

The asset sits on a 143,400sq m land component across four separate lots, and is located on the corner of Beech Road and Camden Valley Way Casula, roughly 35 kilometres from Sydney CBD.

Vendor, the AMP Capital Diversified Property Fund, sold the 48,400sq m-plus size centre, which features 28 large format retailers, in a move it says highlights the ongoing demand for Sydney metropolitan retail assets.

AMP Capital offered the Casula asset to market in August of last year after acquiring it in 2002.

CBRE and Stonebridge Property Group co-marketed the property, which received 13 expressions of interest.

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CBRE’s Nick Willis said the asset attracted diverse investor interest from private and institutional groups, with 46 per cent of the formal offers received being maiden capital into the large format retail sector.

“We are continuing to see an uplift in enquiry and bidder interest as investors identify relative value in the sector compared to other commercial real estate sectors,” he said.

The centre includes anchor tenants Bunnings, The Good Guys, Freedom, Nick Scali and Fantastic Furniture and has proximity to two Costco wholesale supermarkets.

Economic headwinds combined with concerns around the growth of e-commerce, resulted in $9.21 billion worth of retail assets transacting last year, research by Savills Australia found 2018 was the second largest year on record.