Ray White Invest has bought and carved up a portfolio of eight light industrial properties in south-east Queensland that are leased to Australia Post.
Ray White Invest picked up the portfolio of mail distribution centres from Australia Post for an undisclosed price in an option deal in March.
The fund manager then on-sold the properties to separate private buyers for a total of $14.65 million over the course of the year. These sales reflected an average passing yield of 6.73 per cent a year.
The properties are leased back to Australia Post on a variety of lease terms of up to three years plus options, which offered some certainty in the volatile market.
“We decided to offer the properties on an individual basis as a result of changing market conditions,” Ray White Invest project director Hans Pearson said.
“We felt confident in selling them individually to the private investor and owner occupier market because of their size and excellent location within established business and industrial parks.”
The properties sold to private investors and owner occupiers at between $1 million and $4 million.
“We have certainly seen a stronger level of demand by breaking up the portfolio. Even so, the level of demand at that end of the market was noticeably weaker by the end of the campaign then where it was at the start,” Mr Pearson said.
Ray White Transact’s Rick Bird sold four of the eight properties.
“We were very pleased to sell all the assets in a very challenging market. The strategy of tailoring the product for the private investor market has served us well,” he said.
An Australia Post spokesman said the sale to Ray White Invest had been a strong result as it had dealt with a proven counterparty and secured its occupancy requirements for the medium term.
Tags: Australia Post Deal, Industrial Property Investment, Investment Portfolio, Ray White Invest