Keppel swoops on Charles Sturt University campus in $65m play

Education assets are currently hot properties among offshore investors.

Developer Garry Rothwell’s Winten Property Group has reaped $65.5m from sale of the Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney as education assets take centre stage.

The developer has tied up a deal to sell the university campus to Singapore fund manager Keppel, with the deal showing a yield of about 7.25 per cent – in keeping with the reset of the area’s commercial market.

“Keppel’s flagship Education Asset Fund series continues to make strategic investments in education-related assets across Asia Pacific. As part of this, Keppel Education Asset Fund I is strengthening its portfolio with the acquisition of the Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney,” a spokesman said.

Charles Sturt University’s North Sydney campus. Picture: Mark Merton Photography

Keppel already owns a school campus in North Sydney, which it bought from local group Built and puts on display the rising attractiveness of the education sector at a time when the office recovery is only just beginning.

Others are also buying.

Singapore fund manager TrustCapital Advisors is targeting the purchase of the Monash College complex in Melbourne’s Docklands for about $390m from a GPT-managed fund.

Winten, which Rothwell founded in 1972, is known for developing luxury apartment projects and commercial buildings in Sydney and has a fortune estimated at about $600m.

The university property, known as 77 Berry, was marketed by Bevan Kenny, Shirley Fan and Michael Stokes of Stanton Hillier Parker. The seven-storey commercial office building covers 5585sq m and is fully leased to Charles Sturt University for more than eight years.

Located at the northern end of Denison Street, 77 Berry has large floor plates, balconies and four sides of natural light, along with a pedestrian plaza and retail ­component.

The building has 50 basement car spaces with access from Denison Street.

Education is a hot sector. A unit of Singaporean fund manager Cambridge RE Partners in March struck a deal to purchase a building in Sydney’s Kent Street, occupied by Central Queensland University, in a deal worth about $111.58m.

Keppel’s private fund, the Keppel Education Asset Fund, in 2023 bolstered its local holdings with the acquisition of two education assets in Sydney for a total of $198m. That included the building in North Sydney undertaken by Built, which it bought under a forward purchase agreement worth about $120m.