Some of the country’s largest shopping centres – about $2.5 billion worth – have been sitting on the market for more than a year with some being pulled as prospective buyers steer clear of major acquisitions amid fears the malls are overvalued.
“The asset was taken off the market because LLG only wanted to sell 50 per cent and all offers received were for 100 per cent,” said Marnie Lewis-Millar, who runs Lewis Land Group with her sister Shay Lewis-Thorpe.“Several competitive offers were received for a 100 per cent sale and rejected,” Ms Lewis-Millar, who with her sister has a fortune of $1.24 billion, according to the Financial Review Rich List, added.
Nora Farren, the lead property economist at BIS Oxford, said the values of local shopping centres were being reset, leading to many of those that had failed to sell remaining off the market – for now. “Quite a few assets that were on the market last year that didn’t sell were taken off the market. We expected them to come back on this year, and some of them did, but a lot of them haven’t as there still isn’t pricing clarity,” she said.