QIC continued its sell off of retail assets with the sale to Harvey Norman of the Watergardens Homeplace Centre in Victoria for $97m.
The large format retail centre is located at 430 Melton Highway and occupies a large 7.08ha site.
Harvey Norman occupy part of the site along with Barbecues Galore, Beacon Lighting, Bunnings and SuperCheap Auto. The site has convenient parking for 827 vehicles with good access to Melton Highway and Kings Road which benefits from approximately 36,000 passing vehicles each day.
The Taylors Lakes districts are expanding rapidly toward Melton with an area of 7,309ha within the Urban Growth Boundary already holding approved Precinct Structure Plans. Melbourne’s western region (which includes the areas further South near Tarneit) is one of the fastest growing regions in Australia and will eventually accommodate a population of 377,000 or more people and have the capacity to accommodate at least 164,000 jobs.
The 25,000sqm Watergardens Homeplace Centre generates $4.83m of net income pa, which will provide Harvey Norman with a passing yield of 4.98%. The Homemaker Centre sits opposite the 60,000sqm Watergardens Shopping Centre which is also owned by QIC.
Over the past 2 years, QIC has sold down $2.1bn of real estate holdings, including;
- Robina Home & Life – $66m (Mar 2021)
- Coomera Town Centre – $30M (Jan 2021)
- Marsden Park Shopping Centre (QLD) – $48m (Nov 2020)
- Q&A Centre Brisbane – $395m (Oct 2019)
- 80 Collins Street, Melbourne – $1.35bn (March 2019)