Raiders boot property goal with $56m Bunnings sale

Property records show it was acquired through a subsidiary of the club’s controlling entity, Queanbeyan United Rugby League Football Inc.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Raiders also invested in two office buildings in Brisbane around the same time it bought the Bunnings. It is currently developing apartments, terrace houses and a new training venue as part of an $80 million project at Northbourne Oval in Canberra.

The Raiders last won the premiership in 1994. They were runners-up in 2019.

The club has done better as a property investor, with the value of its Bunnings property soaring amid strong demand for one of the most sought-after retail leases in the country.

In March, Charter Hall set a new benchmark for Bunnings warehouses by acquiring a brand new 16,000sq m outlet in Melbourne’s south-east for $42.3 million on a yield of 4.5 per cent.

HomeCo picked up the Bunnings Seven Hills property on a yield of 5.1 per cent, one of several large-format properties to change hands in the past few weeks – all of them acquired by fund managers.

Last week, the ASX-listed Charter Hall Long WALE REIT paid $28.1 million for a new Bunnings property to be developed in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, while in Sydney, privately owned investment group EG paid $48.75 million for a Bunnings in Rockdale on a yield of 5.4 per cent.

Also in December, Australian business leaders comprising David Gonski, Simon Mordant and John Curtis sold a vacated Bunnings warehouse – valued at $16 million in 2015 – to Charter Hall for $70 million.

For the Home Consortium Daily Needs REIT, the acquisition of the Seven Hills Bunnings will diversify its Daily Needs REIT portfolio, which floated on the ASX in November with a $900 million portfolio of metropolitan convenience malls.

“This Bunnings asset ticks all the boxes: excellent Sydney metro location in high growth corridor, high quality tenant and the acquisition is immediately accretive to funds from operations [or earnings],” Home Consortium CEO and executive chairman David Di Pilla said.

The large-format warehouse stands on 2.23 hectares 30 kilometres north-west of the Sydney CBD.

Following the acquisition, the Daily Needs REIT is forecast to deliver funds from operations per unit (or earnings per share) 6 per cent ahead of the IPO forecast, with gearing at 34.9 per cent.

The REIT, which comprises 18 malls trading on a cap rate of just under 6 per cent, made a lacklustre debut on the ASX after raising $300 million.