3 potential real estate deals to watch this year

Looking to invest some serious money in prime Australian real estate?

Corporate restructures, takeovers and strategic reviews often clear the way for properties to hit the market and this year’s biggest sales – announced and rumoured – are hitting the market in precisely this way.

If you have the capital and know-how to drive value in your portfolio, here are three of Australia’s biggest potential real estate deals you should be taking a look at.

3 real estate deals to watch

DJs sites in central Sydney

The $2.15 billion Woolworths South Africa acquisition of David Jones has focused attention on the 119-year-old retailer’s four stores, valued at $612 million two years ago.

Two months ago, Woolworths SA retained Colliers International to seek expressions of interest for its Sydney sites (it also owns a building in Elizabeth St). But when the Australian boss and straight talking Scot, Ian Moir, ducked a question about the portfolio’s future, the rumour mill went into overdrive.

That puts DJs right at the top of our list, with most interest centred on its flagship building in Market St, Sydney. With a new 48-storey apartment tower being built above the City Tattersalls Club next door, analysts are estimating a combined site could add up to a billion-dollar development.

DJs is at the top of our list, with most interest centred on its flagship building in Market St, Sydney.

DJs also owns two buildings in Melbourne which straddle the Bourke St Mall.

Read more: Investing: which commercial property is right for you?

Waterfront Place tower in Brisbane

Australia’s biggest office building sale for 2014 has been announced, with Stockland and the Future Fund putting their Waterfront Place tower in Brisbane on the market.

Waterfront Place, near the Eagle Street Pier,  has some of the largest floor plates in the Brisbane CBD at close to 1800sqm.

The 60,000sqm complex is home to a range of tenants, including lawyers King & Wood  Mallesons, DLA Piper, Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Minter Ellison, BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices and the Queensland office of US Wealth Management firm Blackrock.

JLL Queensland is marketing Waterfront Place and expects a sale price of about $600 million, making it the priciest office building to hit the market this year.

Read more: Office real estate: what is it?

Fosters brewery in inner Melbourne

For many, it was a truly sad day in September 2011 when global brewer SAB Miller took over 150-year-old Aussie beer icon Fosters in a $12 billion deal.

The new owners moved quickly, executing a new management structure and brand strategy over the past two years. But property industry eyes are now focused on one rather large balance sheet item, namely the rapidly dating CUB brewery in the inner Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford.

Property industry eyes are focused on the rapidly dating CUB brewery in Abbotsford.

CEO Ari Mervis in 2012 quashed rumours of an imminent sale, emphasising the group’s century-old occupation of the site. That came despite a calculation by analysts at Merrill Lynch that the brewer could cut $200 million in costs by moving to a custom built site at a more convenient, truck-friendly location.

What was true then is even truer today, as the 10ha site 4km east of the CBD is surrounded by narrow, traffic congested streets.

Even more persuasive, though, is the drawing to completion of intensive apartment developments close by, such as the large Green Square complex on Victoria St.

While some of the buildings on the Fosters site date back 80 years, none are heritage listed. Estimates place the value of the site at between $140 million and $170 million.