$1bn eastern seaboard retail portfolio heads to market

A group of high-performing retail assets across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be put up for sale next month, marking the largest retail portfolio offering to hit the Australian market since 2018. 

The portfolio comprises eight assets progressively acquired over 30 years, including Sydney’s Market City, Melbourne’s Spencer Outlet Centre, the Gold Coast’s Q Super Centre, and a collection of shopping centres (Indooroopilly Central, Kenmore Plaza and Kenmore Village) and commercial assets in Brisbane.

Collectively, the assets have a gross lettable area of more than 122,500sqm, boasting long-term leases to leading national retailers and a history of high occupancy and robust trading performance.

The portfolio acquisition opportunity, offered on behalf of Brisbane-based Jen Retail Properties, has an anticipated value of more than $1 billion.

CBRE’s Pacific head of retail capital markets, Simon Rooney, has been exclusively appointed to manage the five-week expressions of interest campaign, which will launch in early September.

Rooney said opportunities of this scale and quality were exceptionally rare, offering investors an immediate and strategic investment platform, with a sought-after geographic footprint across the eastern seaboard.

“The portfolio combines dominant metropolitan and CBD retail assets, strong convenience-based shopping centres and complementary commercial real estate in some of the country’s most densely populated and supply-constrained markets.

“We expect considerable interest from local and offshore institutional investors and private interests, reflecting the depth of capital seeking well-connected metropolitan and CBD retail assets with strong convenience, food, service and non-discretionary and entertainment fundamentals,” he said.

The offering comes amid continued strength in Australia’s retail property sector, driven by resilient consumer spending, low metropolitan vacancy rates below 3 per cent, and projected retail sales growth reaching approximately $530 billion by 2030.