Savills IM Notches $68M in Aussie Deals for APAC Fund With Brisbane Mall Acquisition

UK-based real estate specialists Savills Investment Management are continuing to deploy capital from their Savills IM Asia Pacific Fund (SIM APF), having picked up a second Australian asset through the pan-Asian open-ended vehicle, according to a statement today by the company.

Savills IM’s most recent Aussie acquisition is The Station Oxley, a retail complex just south of Brisbane’s Oxley Station. The March purchase was the firm’s maiden venture into the country’s Queensland state.

Now apparently a Brisbane believer, Savills IM’s new shopping centre has 7,100 square metres of net lettable area, and is anchored by a Woolworths department store and by quarters of the Queensland government. Those two tenants together account for 65 percent of the property’s income, according to a statement from the investment manager.

Brisbane Mall Added to Perth Apartments

This latest purchase brings Savills IM’s recent Australian investment total to A$90 million ($68 million) after the company bought a serviced apartment complex in Perth, Western Australia in December.

The UK firm’s acquisition on Australia’s less-travelled side is the 4-star, 130-room Quest East Perth, one of 150 serviced apartment complexes operated by ANZ serviced hospitality group quest. Savills Investment Management purchased the property, which is leased to Quest through 2031, from a local developer.

Savills IM Capitalizing on Opportunities in Japan and Singapore

“These assets fit perfectly into the strategy of our fund which targets modern, high occupancy, low-risk assets suitable for long-term investment in markets across Asia Pacific that exhibit potential for future growth,” Lee Tredwell, Head of Investments for Australia at Savills IM, said of the acquisitions. “Both of these assets will provide the fund with secure passive cash flow with fixed increases (at above inflation levels) with limited capex or leasing requirements in the short to medium term.”

The Asia Pacific Fund was previously known as SEB Asia REI and was set up SEB Asset Management to cater to German institutional investors in 2012. Savills IM bought SEB’s real estate business in 2015.

These latest acquisitions complement SIM APF’s existing assets in Japan and Singapore, according to Savills IM, adding that the purchases are aligned with the fund’s approach of investing across multiple asset classes.

Real estate investment volumes slid in 2016, but Savills IM hit a new high transaction volume of $868 million in the Asia Pacific, largely buoyed by its work in Japan and Singapore.

In February Savills IM won two mandates to invest in Japanese real estate equaling $600 million, a country where the company has assets under management in excess of $1 billion. In December of last year, Savills IM had six transactions in Japan, including the Tama Center Building in Tokyo.

In Singapore Savills IM recorded $557 million in transactions last year, which made up over 60 percent of its total transacted amount in the Asia-Pacific. The two major transactions from Savills IM in Singapore last year included a building on 77 Robinson Road for approximately $371.4 million and Savills IM dropping its 60 percent stake in a Chinatown shopping centre for $185.9 million.