JY Group bought a half stake in Westfield Marion for $670m.
Retail property has emerged as the outperformer in the commercial property sector, with about $13bn worth of transactions completed in the last financial year and more assets in due diligence.
For the second year running, the retail sector beat out the other major commercial sectors, accounting for 42 per cent of the total $31.3bn of transactions, according to JLL Research.
The office sector contributed $9.6bn, and the industrial sector about $8.7bn.
The push into shopping centres, in particular, was driven by consistent population growth and a confluence of different investors looking to acquire retail assets.
Private capital made a significant push into the market, often beating out institutional investors and syndicates to become the top acquirer on a dollar basis. Private capital acquisitions made up $4.3bn of retail deals.
In the last year, 29 deals exceeded $100m and 13 closed for more than $300m, leading to a 66 per cent jump in average deal size to $124m.
JLL retail investments head for Australia and NZ Sam Hatcher said that demand for retail assets was unwavering, with bidder depth exceeding historical averages.
Regional shopping centres made up a significant chunk of deals (43 per cent), totalling $5.6bn of transactions. Yields on regional shopping centres also tightened to 5.8 per cent on average.
JLL expects demand to stay strong in the new financial year on limited supply and a growing number of international players looking for retail assets on Australian shores.
Partial-interest sales also grew in number, as evidenced by the biggest transactions of the year.
Those transactions include: GPT Group’s $1.2bn spend on a half-stake of both Sunshine Plaza in Queensland and Macarthur Square in NSW from Lendlease; QIC and ART buying 19.9pc of Westfield Sydney for $863m; and JY Group acquiring half of Westfield Marion for $670m.