This week in ASX real estate: Openn the pod bay doors

• Openn Negotiation commenced trading on ASX 21 July
• Multiple office properties were leased, bought or sold
• One land lease community was acquired, another might be on the way

The broader market

Today’s trading saw the market continue to make back losses from earlier in the week, almost hitting 7,400 just after lunch.

Earlier in the week, the market dived sharply down across Monday and Tuesday trading.

At the time of publication, the top-performing ASX listed real estate companies were:

Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies

Source: ASX

In addition to the top performers, the bottom five (from fifth lowest to lowest) were:

Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies

Source: ASX

The movement

Of the two companies that made a move in the lifestyle community sector, land lease community or LLC was the way to go.

Stockland (ASX: SGP) will be acquiring Halcyon Group’s land lease communities business for $620 million.

The acquisition will see Stockland take over Halcyon’s 3,800 sites across 13 land lease communities, made up of six established and lease communities, four communities in development and three projects in planning.

While Aspen Group (ASX: APZ) hasn’t quite launched into the LLC space yet, it indicated the company was considering the model for future development at the recently acquired Wodonga Gardens Retirement Estate, just south of Albury, in Victoria. The purchase price was $6.01 million, with a small number of contracts already in place.

Offices property was as hot, and despite wider woes, quite a few were bought and sold. Most weren’t the typical skyscrapers though, with some unique offerings taking off.

Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) leased part of the former Virgin Australia HQ to Fujifilm Business Innovation Australia. CLW purchased the property in December 2017 from Virgin Australia for $90.8 million. The company conducted a $94.1 million raise to fund the acquisition, with an initial passing yield of 6.9%.

Australian Unity Office Fund (ASX: AOF) acquired an office in the Queensland suburb of Beenleigh for $33.52 million. The first A-grade commercial office in the area, it is unique as the ground and the first level allows for tenants to use the ground floor as a retail or commercial space, and the adjoining first-floor area as a studio apartment.

Higher up, Dexus (ASX: DXS) acquired 49% interest in the holding unit trust that owns 98 Mounts Bay Road. The premium-grade skyscraper was constructed in 2018 and is currently 100% leased to Woodside.

Dexus also announced the next step of its Central Place Sydney project. The future Atlassian HQ will be developed by Dexus, DXS announced it had entered into binding terms which provide a framework to fund, develop and invest in Atlassian’s new headquarters in Sydney.

Toys”R”Us ANZ Limited (ASX: TOY) will be upping its e-commerce game with a large purpose-built warehouse distribution facility. Due for completion around June 2022, the 19,650 sqm building will be located in Clayton, Victoria.

Lendlease (ASX: LLC) sold its services business to Service Stream (ASX: SSM), the deal worth $310 million.

Before we get to the biggest story, Acumentis (ASX: ACU) announced late today it has completed its acquisition of Acumentis WA.

Hold your space helmet, Dave, it’s the big news: Openn Negotiation (ASX: OPN) rang the ASX bells. The company was finally listed on the ASX, The Property Tribune reported in May that the company expected to list on 9 June.

Openn Negotiation started trading on 21 July and closed the day 55% higher than the IPO price of 20 cents. Throughout the week, shares traded as high as 43.5 cents yesterday, but has closed at 30 cents today.

That’s all for this week in ASX listed real estate, time to close those pod bay doors for the week.