Blackstone gets keys to home site for $72m Home HQ at Artarmon in Sydney. PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone has snapped up the Home HQ Artarmon homemaker centre on Sydney's north shore for $72.5 million. It was its fourth major retail property acquisition in Australia as it looks to capitalise on a turnaround in the once unpopular sector. Australian institutions have all but abandoned the area, leaving it to savvy private groups such as the Karedis family's Arkadia and the property unit of Brett Blundy's BB Retail Group, as well as some private equity players. While BB Retail Capital and Arkadia have well-established portfolios, they have been joined by opportunistic players such as Blackstone, Altis and Primewest. In just eight months, Blackstone has set up a major retail platform. On the shopping centre side, it bought Top Ryde City in Sydney for $341m and Greensborough Plaza in Melbourne for $360m. In bulky goods it bought the Logan Megacentre in Queensland for $52m. Blackstone has targeted quality centres that have fallen out of favour. Bulky goods, in particular, lost popularity during earlier housing slowdowns, and due to the lower quality tenants the sector drew. But the US private equity giant has been buying centres in city infill locations where it can see inherent land value and which can also benefit from more intensive management. As local institutions exited the sector they lost traction over tenants as their networks shrank. Blackstone, which already controls six Valad Property Group centres, has greater scale and may also look to transfer some concepts from its regional malls to the bulky goods centres. Simon Rooney and Luke Harris of Jones Lang LaSalle negotiated the sale of Home HQ, as flagged by The Australian, for a Charter Hall managed fund. Mr Rooney said a record $1.2 billion worth of centres had traded over the past two years. The largest, the $178.5m sale of Home Hub Hills in NSW in January last year, kicked off a series of 34 homemaker-centre deals. Mr Rooney said the sector had changed since 2008 as "there has been a gradual transfer of ownership from institutions to private investors over this time." "A-REITs continue to reduce their exposure to homemaker centres and have been substantial net sellers of approximately $588.2m since 2008 in order to recycle capital back into the refurbishment of their major core assets," he said. The new breed of buyers are looking to capitalise on the wide yield spread to more traditional centres. Yields for bulky goods centres range between 8.5 per cent and 11.5 per cent - the mid-point stands at 9.6 per cent, compared with the 10-year average of 8.78 per cent. "Yields in the bulky goods sector remain very high by historical standards and offer investors potentially very attractive returns for those willing to move up the risk curve and take a countercyclical position," Mr Rooney said.