HMC Capital buys Coburns Central, Melton West, for $49m

HMC Capital has bought Coburns Central in Melton West, in the City of Melton, for $49 million, realestatesource.com.au reported on 14 October 2026, taking the Woolworths-anchored neighbourhood centre off Assembly Funds Management and PGIM Real Estate. The 2.03-hectare site sits at 523-531 High Street, on the south-west corner of Coburns Road. HMC Capital will hold the asset for an unlisted fund, and the sale followed a campaign that drew 13 offers priced at sub-6 per cent returns before settling at a 5.5 per cent initial yield.

Why it matters

Assembly Funds Management, linked to the Lowy family, and PGIM Real Estate bought Coburns Central from QIC in March 2025 as part of a $440.5 million portfolio deal, with QIC itself having paid $26 million for the centre in 2015 from Adelaide investor Nick DiMauro, according to realestatesource.com.au. Selling the fully-leased, smaller asset at a sub-6 per cent yield while keeping the larger, partly undeveloped Woodgrove Shopping Centre next door points to a capital recycling move: bank the income-secured asset now, hold the land with entitlement upside.

Tim Meurer, chief investment officer at Assembly Funds Management, said the deal reflected ongoing investor demand. “There remains significant liquidity for tightly held neighbourhood assets,” he said. PGIM Real Estate’s head of Australian real estate, Steve Bulloch, said the sale fitted PGIM’s strategy of buying assets with strong in-place income. For west Melbourne retail owners, 13 offers at sub-6 per cent returns is a live pricing marker for small grocery-anchored centres.

The numbers

Coburns Central changes hands for $49 million on 6,845 sqm of lettable area across the 2.03-hectare site, a 5.5 per cent initial yield. Woolworths anchors the centre on a percentage-rent lease, alongside 13 specialty tenancies let at roughly a third below market rent, a mini-major, and two pad sites held by an Ampol service station and a Hungry Jack’s outlet. The centre carries 349 car parks, serving a trade area built around the High Street and Coburns Road intersection in Melton West. JLL’s Stuart Taylor, Tom Noonan and Nick Willis ran the campaign for the sellers alongside Stonebridge Property Group’s Justin Dowers, Carl Molony and Kevin Tong, fielding 13 offers before the deal landed with HMC Capital. The below-market specialty rents also leave room for the new owner to push rents toward market as leases roll, on top of the Woolworths percentage-rent income.

What’s next

Assembly Funds Management and PGIM Real Estate are not exiting Melton West. The pair retain Woodgrove Shopping Centre, a much larger 53,372 sqm centre on about 25 hectares with more than 2,000 car parks, directly adjoining Coburns Central. They also hold a block fronting Barries Road that the sellers describe as immediately developable, giving them a built asset and a development site in the same corridor even after the Coburns Central sale settles. For HMC Capital, the purchase adds a fully-let, Woolworths-anchored centre to an unlisted fund mandate at a yield still inside the sub-6 per cent band that drew competing bids, with no indication yet of further acquisitions in the Melton submarket. For another recent retail centre deal, see Vicinity’s Uptown facade lodgement after its $212m buy.