Caniwi snaps up another Wellington student apartment complex
Caniwi Capital snaps up another Wellington student apartment complex
By Pattrick Smellie
May 29
(BusinessDesk) - Wellington-based investment firm Caniwi
Capital has paid $33.3 million to acquire a newly
refurbished Victoria University student accommodation block
formerly housing ANZ Bank operations in the Wellington
central business district.
The purchase of 175 The Terrace follows Caniwi's acquisition in 2013 of a Boulcott St multi-storey building for $14.3 million, also converted from commercial use to student accommodation.
The firm now
has a $125 million commercial property portfolio in
Wellington, including an ANZ process centre in Tory St, a
Ministry of Social Development call centre in Lower Hutt and
two buildings containing operations of The Warehouse, in
Petone, Caniwi principal Troy Bowker told BusinessDesk. The
company has invested a total $250 million in commercial
property around New Zealand, including regional
chicken-rearing facilities leased long term to poultry firms
Tegel and Inghams.
Caniwi also owns the Hamilton-based
Stowers packaging company and has some $70 million of
further acquisitions in the pipeline at various stages of
readiness, said Bowker, who sees the commercial property
market as being "mid-cycle", reflected in the fact that
yields are falling closer to long-term bond yields, which
remain at historic lows.
The property at 175 The
Terrace carries a 15-year lease to Victoria University, with
the average lease term across Caniwi's portfolio sitting at
18.5 years.
That compared with 6.5 years average lease
terms for listed property trusts, said Bowker, who had "no
plans at this stage" to list his
portfolio.
(BusinessDesk)