Real estate managers Alceon and Aktiv have acquired a mixed-use shopping centre in Australia for A$142m (€81m).

The pair bought The Strand at Coolangatta in the beachside town of Coolangatta, north of Brisbane, from its developer-owner who had owned it since 2001.

Todd Pepper, founding partner of Alceon’s Queensland business said: “Queensland offers a highly attractive investment setting for us due to its efficient government and regulatory processes and strong growth prospects.”

He added that the state had experienced robust population and housing price growth led by a constant period of positive migration.

Olivier Sicouri, managing director at Aktiv, said: “The Strand in Coolangatta is a unique asset, positioned in the heart of an iconic precinct. It presents a rare opportunity to acquire an asset of this scale well below replacement cost in a location like this, particularly given that it is expected to grow and gentrify and faces limited competition risk, due to prohibitively high construction costs.”

Nick Willis, joint head of retail investments and Sam Hatcher, head of national retail investments at JLL, which brokered the deal, said opportunities to acquire large-scale and irreplaceable beach front shopping centres like this rarely became available. demographics drove strong capital engagement from local and offshore investors.”

Hatcher added that the sale of The Strand exemplified the trend of syndicators acquiring well-located shopping centres with strong distribution potential and value-add opportunities, though such properties were becoming scarce as competition intensifies across retail sub-sectors.”

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