Sydney shopping centre in $525m mega sale
Top Ryde City Shopping Centre is under new ownership.
Top Ryde City Shopping Centre has been sold for $525m, in a deal that is the first of its kind in over ten years.
The centre was sold to Singapore-listed real estate investment trust Keppel REIT, alongside global asset managers MA Financial.
It is understood that Keppel REIT will take a 75 per cent stake in the deal, with the remaining interest to be held in an MA Financial managed fund.
The centre in Sydney’s northwest is home to usual big-hitters like Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, Kmart and Big W, as well as Event Cinemas, 23 mini‑major stores like Cotton On and JB Hi-Fi and 152 specialty stores.
Located 14km north‑west of the Sydney CBD, it serves a catchment of around 477,000 people.
According to Colliers, it recorded a Moving Annual Total (MAT) of $487m in sales over the last 12 months.
Keppel REIT purchased the centre fully-leased, boasting an initial yield of 6.7 per cent.
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The previous owners tried to sell the Centre in 2018 for $700m.
The purchase marked a decade-first as an on-market sale of a metropolitan regional shopping centre in Sydney, with Colliers managing director of Asia-Pacific retail capital markets Lachlan MacGillivray calling it “one of the most significant retail transactions of the year.”
“Assets of this scale are effectively irreplaceable given density, land values and construction costs that constrain new supply,” he said.
“Core metropolitan assets of this calibre remain tightly held and this is the first on‑market sale of a 100 per cent interest in a Sydney metropolitan regional shopping centre in more than a decade, reflecting the appetite for long‑term exposure to defensive retail in the right locations.”
The centre was previously held by US private equity powerhouse Blackstone, who first put the site up for sale back in 2018 for $700m.
They purchased it five years prior for $341m.
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Timezone and Zone Bowling at Top Ryde City Shopping Centre.
Colliers head of retail investments for Australia and New Zealand Sam Hatcher said Keppel REIT’s purchase of the centre was “exceptionally rare.”
“Over the past 15 years, only two other 100 per cent interest in Regional sized shopping centres have ever sold in NSW,” he said.
JLL executive director of retail investments for Australia and New Zealand Nick Willis said competition for major regional shopping centres was intensifying.
“This shift in investor sentiment is being buoyed by the performance of the US retail market and is providing the catalyst for many investors to make their first foray into the sector … with Keppel REIT making their first shopping centre acquisition globally,” he said.
The sale demonstrates a growing international investor confidence in Australia’s retail market.
