The Leda Group beat tough competition for the eight-hectare industrial at 286 Horsley Road, Milperra, from Lennox Industrial, with plans for a land subdivision and strata units to meet the demand by investors in the region.
Billionaire investor Rob Ell, Leda’s managing director, said the site was “strategically acquired given the significant investment in infrastructure that is planned or currently under way by the government.
“Most of this investment is happening within south-west Sydney,” Mr Ell said.
“The attraction to the south west is not only buoyed by the new airport and the new aerotropolis economic zone around the new airport, but by a shortage of industrial space closer to Sydney,” said Colliers International’s Gavin Bishop
The vendor, Singapore-listed Frasers Property Australia, bought the property in mid-2016 for $65M.
The sale is indicative of the increasing demand from companies in the e-commerce sector for warehouse and logistics space in the tight industrial market in Western Sydney.
The Outer West and South West have received the strongest levels of demand, accounting for 45.1 per cent and 44.3 per cent respectively of the total space absorption over the three months to October 2017, according to research by Knight Frank
Fund manager Charter Hall, for example, has bought a 16.7-hectare industrial asset in Sydney’s south west for $90.5M in an off-market acquisition.
Charter Hall made the acquisition in partnership with the wholesale Core Logistics Partnership, forming a joint venture to acquire the Coles-leased distribution centre in at 80 Hartley Road, Smeaton Grange.
GPT has expanded its logistics footprint with plans to construct a 30,000-square-metre logistics and office site, in Old Wallgrove Road, Eastern Creek,
Frasers Property Australia has boosted its prime Western Sydney holdings by paying $75.5 million for two sites in Horsley Park and Eastern Creek.
US retail giant Costco has bought more than 14 hectares in an area which is drawing strong interest from e-commerce companies and plans to develop a $77M national distribution centre in Kemps Creek, near the airport site.
Amazon is opening its second Australian distribution centre in Moorebank, while Toll Group opened its $160M retail and e-commerce centre earlier this year and DB Schenker opened a new $50M facility last year.
Industrial land values have reportedly more than doubled over the last five years.
Tenant demand – driven by the ever-increasing e-commerce sector – the growth of infrastructure in the south-west, Western Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek Aerotropolis are driving up land values to new levels.
