Indigenous organisation buys twin WA service stations

An organisation dedicated to helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people achieve economic independence has paid more than $30 million for two service stations on opposite sides of the Forrest Highway.

Indigenous Business Australia bought the two neighbouring service stations at West Pinjarra, about 80km south of Perth, for $34 million from Perth-based property investment and syndication group Security Capital Australia.

Completed in 2017, the service stations are leased to Caltex for 20 years, and each have a food court with five tenancies.

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They fetch a combined rental income of almost $2.2 million annual, marking a investment yield of 6.35%.

Dawkins Occhiuto’s Chris Jones, who managed the expressions of interest campaign with Walter Occhiuto and Andrew Dawkins, along with Savills’ Chris Ireland, Graham Postma and Paul Craig, says there was considerable interest in both assets.

The service stations sit on either side of the Forrest Highway.

“We expected a strong market response and the result reflected that with competition from  local and off-shore buyers at a time when blue chip investments have become increasingly hard to find,” he says.

Jones says the timing of the sale was important, with investment sentiment in Western Australia currently on the improver.

“Security Capital took the opportunity to put the properties to market at a time when mining exploration expenditure in WA is rising and investors are looking to take advantage of the positive growth prospects that will follow,” he says.

“Mining remains a significant economic driver in WA and so with any increase in  expenditure in the sector we see concomitant across the board growth and that includes the industrial and logistics sectors in particular.”