High-flying deal: Agents land once-in-a-career aircraft hangar sale

But when the occasion to manage the sale of two hangars at Brisbane airport came along, Colliers industrial executive Louis Jorgensen jumped at the once-in-a-generation opportunity.

“Both of these hangars have direct access to the runway, which is quite a rare offering in this market,” Jorgensen said.

“We’ve looked through the airport and identified only 10 other aircraft hangars within this precinct that offer direct runway access.”

While usually selling warehouses, Jorgensen said that one of the first challenges he faced in the process was determining the properties’ value.

“It’s an interesting one because with a typical sale, we’d find the property and then we look around it for the most comparable sales,” Jorgensen said.

“In this instance, it’s a rare offering and assets like these, particularly aircraft hangars on leasehold land, don’t come to market very often.”

“So it can be quite difficult to form an opinion.”

Finding the right pitch

When it comes to unusual sales, Jorgensen said that a strong understanding of the target market is pivotal to ensuring it reaches the full range of interested buyers.

“When executing a campaign for an asset like this, it’s obviously not a typical industrial warehouse that we’re used to selling; you have to be strategic in the people you are reaching out to,” he said.

“You need to make sure the users are going to benefit, and then it becomes a combination of direct canvassing of those groups and then ensuring that the marketing you have is relevant.”

He said that one of the biggest hurdles when marketing the listing was that it was a leasehold asset rather than freehold.

Because the land was leased from Brisbane Airport, Jorgensen said that he had to ensure prospective buyers understood the process would differ from a standard freehold purchase.

“Brisbane Airport has a lease with the Commonwealth government for the land, so any approvals need to go through the airport if there is a change of use to the site or make any sort of amendments.”

“Most of the buyers we’re talking to have an understanding of that because they either have holdings at airports around Australia and they understand how leasehold works, or they’ve looked into these assets prior.”

For buyers unfamiliar with the asset type, Jorgensen said it was important to walk through the process step by step.

Jorgensen said that a hard deadline for the expression of interest (EOI) process sets the expectation that interested buyers would need to be active.

“It’s clearly stated that if there is interest, you have to register and put that interest forward.”

“It encourages groups to become more involved in the process rather than just having an offer for sale date and not having a defined timeline of when that process will end.”

According to Jorgensen, the process had yielded strong interest, with the pool of potential buyers ranging from private individuals looking to store their aircraft to large businesses seeking to expand their operations.

Colliers industrial manager Angus Yule said that the sale of the hangars provided an entry point for those looking to capitalise on Brisbane’s booming market ahead of the 2032 Olympics.

“With more than $116 billion of capital works in the pipeline across the region, including major projects such as Cross River Rail and Inland Rail, Brisbane is experiencing sustained population and economic growth.”

“As Australia’s fastest growing capital city, we’re seeing continued increases in passenger volumes, aircraft movements and aviation-related demand.”

“The Olympics will only accelerate that trend and place further pressure on already constrained airside infrastructure,” Yule concluded.