Diversified property group Dexus has raised $78.9 million in the sale of the Homemaker Prospect centre to the acquisitive investment group AsheMorgan, in a sign large format retailing has not lost its appeal.

Prospect Homemaker is a 26,000 square metre centre in Sydney’s west, with 28 showrooms occupied by brands including Fantastic Furniture, The Good Guys, Snooze, Beacon Lighting and Bing Lee. It’s located in one of the fastest growing catchments in the country.

JLL’s Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher advised on the sale on behalf of Dexus, which paid $64.2 million in 2019 for the centre from Altis.

Dexus is an ASX-listed real estate investment trust and the country’s largest office landlord, with a market value of $8.37 billion. Chief executive Darren Steinberg has said the focus for Dexus is its growing healthcare and logistics sectors, and he will look to sell what the business considers non-core retail assets.

AsheMorgan and its investment partner Blackrock sold Sydney’s Crossroads Homemaker Centre in October to LaSalle Investment Management for $282 million through JLL’s Willis and Hatcher. They paid $140 million for the centre in 2018.

AsheMorgan is a private investor in high-end property that has the opportunity for redevelopment. It has more than $4 billion in its investment and development pipeline and has made over $10 billion in transactions.

“Of the five largest retail transactions completed in Australia in 2022 three have been large format retail assets,” Willis said.

“These have included more recently the sale of Crossroads Homemaker, Homeworld Helensvale for $265 million and Alexandria Homemaker for $200 million, sold to Goodman for last mile conversion.”