Lack of megadeals drag private industrial investment sales by 78.5% in Q4

Total transactions hit $623.9m.

With the absence of very large deals, the total private industrial investment sales value dipped 78.5% QoQ to $623.9m in Q4, Colliers International revealed.

According to its report, despite the declines in industrial property rents through 2017, the investment sales segment still grew 43.5% YoY to $4.1b in 2017.

This was due to ExxonMobil's acquisition of Jurong Aromatics Complex in Q3 for $1.97b, which is the largest deal in absolute terms in the industrial sector in the year.

Citimac Complex, the only industrial collective sale in 2017 transacted in Q3, was also one of the largest deals at $430.1m.

Colliers managing director Tang Wei Leng commented, "REITs have been relatively more active in divesting than acquiring industrial assets in 2017, whilst we see growing institutional interest in niche industrial assets."

Given the stabilising outlook for the industrial property sector, Colliers projects a pick-up in interest in industrial properties by REITs and other qualified institutional investors.