$436 million sale of Home Hub Castle Hill and Marsden Park

Aventus Property Group has purchased Home Hub Castle Hill and Home Hub Marsden Park for $436 million, beating off competition from Gerry Harvey to buy the two centres.

The sale represents a weighted average capitalisation rate of 5.6 percent.

Home Hub Castle Hill was purchased for $336 million at a fully leased yield of 5.50 percent and Home Hub Marsden Park for $100 million at a fully leased yield of 6.00 percent.

Simon Rooney, JLL’s head of retail investments, Australasia, said there is a very limited number of major, core assets in the LFR sector across Sydney, so these presented a rare opportunity to acquire significant scale in the sector.

"The sale of Home Hub Castle Hill and Home Hub Marsden Park was the largest homemaker transaction in Australia’s history," he said.

“The yield achieved resets the benchmark for premium large-format retail assets and represents a new record low for the sector.

"For this particular transaction, investors were forward buying growth by pricing in the potential for strong cash flow and rental uplifts.

"The fundamentals of both assets are well supported by population growth in each catchment of 1.8 percent for Castle Hill and 2.1 percent for Marsden Park, said Rooney.

The portfolio was marketed by JLL in conjunction with McVay Real Estate on behalf of LaSalle Funds Management Limited.

Home Hub Castle Hill features a total of 52,004 sqm built over two multi-level centres and includes parking for 1,490 cars on a combined site area of 59,820 sqm.

Tenants include The Good Guys, Nick Scali, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, Toy ‘R’ Us & Babies ‘R’ Us, Domayne and Freedom, and 64 specialty retailers.

Home Hub Marsden Park is on 19,832.6 sqm, with parking for 451 cars and a site area of 39,900 sqm. It is securely leased with long-term tenure to JB Hi–Fi Home and The Good Guys and features 22 large format and 10 food-based retailers on ground and 7 tenancies on an upper level.