Manulife stakes claim in local industrial market with Sydney warehouse buy
Manulife has added to its local holdings with a $56m warehouse buy in North St Marys.
Global giant Manulife Investment Management has forged into the local industrial sector with the purchase of a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of North St Marys for $56m.
The company picked up the property at 243 Forrester Road from a venture between local company Centennial and private equity firm KKR.
The deal adds to Manulife’s local holdings, which include a half share in the under-construction office tower at 39 Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD that it owns alongside funds manager Investa.
The industrial purchase shows the heavy demand for industrial properties in core Sydney markets, with domestic syndicators and local funds managers also chasing the asset. Other players including Blackstone and Goodman have also been buying in the sector.
Centennial had picked up the large-scale logistics facility in the western Sydney suburb for $35.3m in 2022, with the backing of the real estate arm of private equity giant KKR. It leased the site to Pegasus Media & Logistics and Mitre 10 Australia, which supported the uplift in the site’s pricing.
The off-market deal was brokered by Colliers agents Gavin Bishop, Sean Thomson, Michael Crombie and Trent Gallagher. But they and the parties declined to comment.
The purchase gives Manulife a strategic position in Sydney’s outer-west logistics precinct.
The property consists of a dual-tenanted logistics and distribution facility that spans 14,980sq m and sits on a 31,890sq m freehold block.
The complexes were recently refurbished and extended, and carry a weighted average lease expiry of close to six years. But there is also an opportunity to lift rent in mid-2027, boosting the metrics from an initial yield of about 5 per cent to about 5.8 per cent once this is taken into account.
The industrial market is running hot with a buyer also snapping up 58 Smidmore Street and 211 Edgeware Road, Marrickville, for a combined total of $9.4m. The sites, sold via Colliers, have a combined land area of 1157sq m and a total building area of 830sq m.
The properties sold in rapid succession, with 58 Smidmore Street negotiated and exchanged in three days and 211 Edgeware Road setting an area record improved land rate of $11,765 per square metre.
