How our property investments help deliver for our members

Unlisted property is an asset class that we believe is well suited as a long-term investment and a great way to further diversify our portfolios.

Earlier this month, we were delighted to announce the acquisition of Burra Park, a prime 280-hectare greenfield logistics development site in a 50/50 joint venture with ISPT. The property is located adjacent to the entrance to the new Western Sydney International Airport, which is currently under construction, it will commence operations in 2026 and eventually become Sydney’s largest airport.

UniSuper and ISPT intend to progressively develop Burra Park with the first stages of the development expected to deliver a super-prime manufacturing, warehouse and logistics estate (subject to planning approval). The development of Burra Park is set to benefit from demographic and economic expansion of western Sydney and demand from a variety of sectors and tenants.

This acquisition is a testament to UniSuper’s in-house capability and our ability to secure unique off-market investment opportunities that help our members grow their retirement savings. We’re amongst only a handful of investors in Australia with the scale and execution capability to complete a deal such as this.

The Burra Park investment complements some of our other recent acquisitions which include:

• a prime 66-hectare development site in Deer Park, Victoria 15 kilometres west of Melbourne’s CBD, acquired in February 2024. We expect that this site, once developed, will deliver much needed modern industrial accommodation including logistics, manufacturing and warehouse space.
• a portfolio of 20 high-quality industrial property assets purchased in July 2023. The assets are located in western Sydney’s Quarry Industrial Estate, which is widely regarded as one of the country’s premier industrial estates, and in Truganina—an established industrial and logistics precinct to the west of the Melbourne CBD. 
• a prime industrial re-development opportunity in Yarraville, Victoria in a sought-after location near the Port of Melbourne, acquired in December 2022.

The Burra Park and Deer Park acquisitions add to our unlisted property portfolio which was valued at $7.8 billion as at 31 December 2023. The portfolio includes a mix of directly owned and pooled property investments across different sub sectors of the property market – industrial, retail, office, health and life sciences.

With population growth, the increase in e-commerce and changing consumer expectations, we believe the industrial property sector will continue to remain resilient as we work closely with our investment partners and external advisers towards developing these sites over the coming years.

These investments are examples of high quality property investments that we believe will help our members grow their retirement savings.

The scale of UniSuper combined with a strong in-house investments team means we are uniquely placed to identify and successfully deliver unique investment opportunities for our members.

What’s an industrial property?

Industrial property encompasses factories, warehousing and data centres that facilitates the production, storage and delivery of goods and services. Well located facilities that are close to population centres, highways and transport hubs are highly sought after. The fundamentals of the sector are currently strong with low vacancy, strong tenant demand coupled with a constrained supply outlook.