Industrial property sector primed for long-term growth: Rest

Rest, one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member superannuation funds, is further expanding its exposure to industrial property, amid confidence the sector remains a key area of opportunity to deliver long-term value to the fund’s almost two million members.

Rest recently announced a $1 billion industrial property partnership with Barings (which acquired Altis Property Partners) and confirmed a large prime industrial asset, tenanted by businesses leveraging the space for digital commerce and third-party logistics, as the venture’s initial investment.

Rest Chief Investment Officer Andrew Lill said continued demand for industrial property facilities has seen Australian industrial property establish itself as a promising key growth area and that the outlook remained strong for the sector.

“The national average vacancy rate for industrial property in Australia is the lowest in the world and we expect rates to remain well below historical levels in most markets worldwide,” said Mr Lill.

"The continuing shift from physical to digital commerce has translated into strong business and tenant appetite for large scale and micro distribution centres that exist exclusively for online shopping.

"This has led to tight vacancy rates and high tenant demand across the sector, which we expect to continue in step with the evolving economic landscape."

Although vacancy rates have normalised slightly from those reported last quarter, the supply demand imbalance is likely to continue, said Lill.

"We believe deglobalisation will have significant influence on markets, and drive societal and economic changes in the near future. We can already see this through moves to onshore and diversify supply chains. This activity, as well as construction delays and lack of appropriately zoned land, will continue to play an ongoing role in supply demand imbalance."

Rest’s new industrial partnership will see the fund leverage Barings specialist industrial property expertise to continue to pursue high value opportunities across the sector.

"We believe the industrial investments made through the venture will further diversify Rest’s property investments and improve investment outcomes for our members," said Mr Lill.

The joint venture’s initial seed investment is a prime grade industrial estate, comprising two modern warehouses located at 2-30 Saintly Drive in Truganina within 20 kilometres of the Melbourne central business district.

Major tenants occupying the estate include Catch, the online retail businesses owned by Wesfarmers within the Kmart Group, and Effective Logistics, a specialised third-party logistics provider.