Willer Property pays $16.15m for Canning Vale industrial site
The Sydney-based group bought 1 Brewer Road off-market through Knight Frank, picking up a tenanted workshop and almost a hectare of developable land south of the Perth CBD.
Willer Property, a Sydney-based investor founded in 2024 by Will Johns, has paid $16.15 million for an industrial asset at 1 Brewer Road, Canning Vale, about 13km south of the Perth CBD, in an off-market deal reported 22 October and brokered by Knight Frank’s Geoff Thomson.
Why it matters
The deal gives Willer a tenanted income stream and a development site in one parcel. The 2.17ha holding carries a 4,309 sqm workshop built in 2019, fitted with two gantry cranes rated at 10 tonnes and 25 tonnes and rooftop solar infrastructure, which is leased to VEEM, the ASX-listed marine and defence equipment manufacturer. The workshop occupies only about a fifth of the site, leaving roughly 9,500 sqm of land outside the lease that Willer can develop or lease separately.
Canning Vale gives the site access to Roe Highway, Tonkin Highway, Kwinana Freeway and Leach Highway, according to Real Estate Source.
Willer entered Western Australia only recently, opening a Subiaco office, and the deal takes its assets under management to almost $50 million, according to Real Estate Source’s 22 October report on the deal. The Canning Vale purchase extends that push into a market where industrial land with highway frontage and spare capacity is becoming harder to find close to the city.
The numbers
The $16.15 million price covers the full 2.17ha landholding, the 4,309 sqm workshop and the VEEM lease. Knight Frank and Willer have not disclosed the passing rent or the yield struck on the deal, and Real Estate Source’s report notes only that the price reflected underlying land value with rent sitting below current market levels. The site was previously held by Swan Brewery until 2016, before the workshop was built out for VEEM’s current tenancy in 2019.
Of the 2.17ha total, the leased workshop and its immediate hardstand take up about 20% of the block. The remaining 9,500 sqm is unencumbered by the VEEM lease and is large enough, according to Real Estate Source, to support a second industrial building of about 4,500 sqm plus additional hardstand, subject to planning approval through the City of Canning.
What’s next
Willer has not said when it will develop the surplus land. Any new building would need approval from the City of Canning, and no application has been lodged.
For agents and builders, the deal sets a marker for how buyers are pricing tenanted Perth industrial sites with spare land. Real Estate Source reports the price reflected the underlying land value, with the VEEM rent sitting below market. That gives Willer two levers: lifting the rent toward market over time, and adding a second building of about 4,500 sqm on the surplus land. A builder chasing industrial work south of the river should watch for a City of Canning application on the site. An agent should note that land value, not passing rent, set the price here.
The purchase follows Willer’s move into a Subiaco office. Perth’s wider industrial and construction pipeline has already been running hot this year, with RLB’s Q3 crane count up 20% over six months.