JD Property to Buy Brisbane Industrial Estate From ESR JV for $153M

China’s JD Property has reached an agreement to buy a Brisbane industrial estate from an ESR-led venture, with market sources who spoke to Mingtiandi confirming a deal value of A$240 million ($152.5 million).

Known as Wacol Logistics Hub, the complex of six warehouses would be the first industrial property in Australia to be acquired by the real estate arm of e-commerce giant JD.com, following previous buys in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The 18.2 hectare (45.2 acre) estate was the seed asset of a Logos development venture established four years ago with US buyout giant KKR and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. Sydney-based Logos would later become part of ESR when the Hong Kong-listed builder acquired ARA Asset Management in 2022.

Australia’s Financial Review first reported the news that the parties were in talks on the sale of Wacol Logistics Hub. The estate became available when KKR and Mubadala decided to recycle funds invested in the asset into other opportunities, according to sources who spoke to AFR.

JD Property and ESR had not responded to Mingtiandi’s requests for comment at the time of publication.

Inbound Surge

Located at 3746 Ipswich Road in the Wacol suburb on Brisbane’s southern fringe, Wacol Logistics Hub occupies a site acquired by Logos from ASX-listed developer Fletcher Building in 2021 under a plan to redevelop the asset into 95,000 square metres (1 million square feet) of gross leaseable area.

JD Property’s pending purchase of the estate follows PGIM Real Estate’s acquisition of a half-stake in a Queensland industrial estate for A$207.5 million ($135.2 million) under a joint venture with KordaMentha’s KM Property Funds, in a deal announced in February. The Stockland-built complex at 14 Dixon Street in Gold Coast’s Yatala suburb comprises four warehouses with a gross lettable area of 43,572 square metres.

The Brisbane area saw A$313 billion in industrial transactions in the first quarter of the year, with the Wacol deal set to boost year-to-date volume to A$553 million, according to data compiled by Cushman & Wakefield. For the whole of Australia, first-quarter industrial volume totalled A$1.9 billion, up from A$620 million during the same period of 2024.

With investors having snapped up A$7.2 billion ($4.6 billion) in warehouses, distribution centres and other industrial facilities in Australia last year, the consultancy expects investment in the sector to rise another 38 percent to reach A$10 billion in 2025, it said in a report.

“When you look at Australian logistics opportunities offering cap rates at a blended average across the country of around 5.85 percent, it certainly paints a pretty good picture, particularly when combined with continued strong sector fundamentals, and this is what separates the market from a lot of other locations globally,” said Luke Crawford, head of logistics and industrial research for Australia at Cushman & Wakefield.

Regional Spree

The Wacol deal continues JD Property’s wave of Asia Pacific industrial buys, after the company in December picked up two GLP Japan warehouses spanning a gross floor area of 103,000 square metres, with Tokyo-based residential specialist Alyssa Partners acting as asset manager.

Richard Law, head of Asia Pacific at JD Property, described the acquisitions in Chiba and Nagoya as an important step in growing the regional business of the company, which is backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Hillhouse.

In September, JD Property announced its acquisition of the LiFung Centre in Hong Kong from M&G Real Estate for HK$1.8 billion ($232 million) in the city’s biggest en bloc industrial transaction of the year.

In late 2023, JD Property teamed with Hillhouse-backed developer and fund manager EZA Hill to acquire a portfolio of five logistics assets in Singapore from ESR-Logos REIT for S$350 million ($255 million).