Centuria Pays $86m for Melb LFR as Appetite Sharpens

Investors are continuing to target large-format retail and former big-box property as pricing clarity and limited supply drive deals across metropolitan markets.

Three transactions across Victoria and Western Australia have underscored how buyers are targeting income security and longer-term repositioning opportunities within the sector.

In Melbourne, Centuria has expanded its exposure to homemaker retail with the acquisition of the Chadstone Homeplus Homemaker centre, paying $86.025 million in a deal struck slightly above assessed market value.

The centre on a 1.51ha site on Warrigal Road in the city’s south-east provides about 19,574sq m of lettable area configured for bulky goods and homemaker retailing.

A Bunnings Warehouse anchors the centre and remains the primary traffic driver for the asset.

The tenant mix also includes national retailers across furniture, appliances, flooring and fitness.

The property is on one of Melbourne’s busiest arterial roads and is near the broader Chadstone retail precinct, adding to its role within a well-established commercial catchment.

According to marketing agents Stonebridge, the acquisition highlighted a broader reallocation of capital back into Victoria, with investors increasingly seeking exposure ahead of an anticipated recovery cycle.

Relative value, strong population growth and significant infrastructure investment continued to support the state’s medium-term outlook, prompting investors to move earlier in the cycle, they said.

Stonebridge Property Group national partner Justin Dowers said that although Victoria ranked as the third most active state for retail investment activity in 2025, “we are now seeing increasing depth of enquiry for Melbourne-based retail assets, with competition returning as pricing expectations realign”.

“We expect transaction activity in Victoria to increase materially this year, and the sale of Chadstone Homemaker Centre is a clear example of capital moving back into the state.”

The sale was the largest large format retail transaction in Victoria since 2021, and reinforces growing investor willingness to transact at scale in Melbourne, with further activity anticipated across retail sub-sectors as confidence continues to rebuild through 2026, according to Stonebridge.

▲ Also sold was this LFR centre at Canning Vale on a 1.23ha site that was completed two years ago.

In Western Australia, a modern large-format retail investment in Perth’s south-east has traded for $22.6 million.

The Canning Vale property at 215 Campbell Road was completed two years ago and sits on a 1.23ha site.

It comprises close to 4000sq m of lettable area across a mix of showroom-style tenancies.

Officeworks anchors the development, supported by food, variety retail and childcare uses.

The tenant mix includes Guzman y Gomez, Red Dot and a Tribe Early Learning childcare centre.

The property offers a weighted average lease expiry of more than eight years.

Its relatively new construction provides buyers with depreciation benefits and lower near-term capital expenditure risk.

▲ Bunnings Morley in happier times. The store has been largely vacant since it closed in 2020.

Also in Perth, a former Bunnings warehouse at Morley has sold after several years of vacancy.

BWP Trust has sold the Russell Street property for $19.5 million.

The 1.84ha site in the city’s north-east includes a 10,303sq m former warehouse building and more than 200 carparking spaces.

Bunnings closed the store in 2020 when the lease expired, and operations were consolidated into the nearby, larger Bayswater store.

The asset had been used intermittently for temporary and community-related purposes.

The site is within the Morley Activity Centre under planning controls that allow for higher-density outcomes.

There is no height restriction, increasing its appeal to developers assessing residential or mixed-use schemes.

The sale reflects growing interest in former single-tenant retail assets that can be repurposed as urban land values rise.