A vendor's guide

Selling industrial property off-market: a vendor's guide

Direct answer

Selling off-market suits owners who value privacy, need to sell a tenanted asset without disrupting the tenant, want no public disruption to a trading business, or are offshore owners simplifying their holdings. It works by dealing directly and confidentially with a funded buyer through indicative terms and due diligence to settlement — and it works alongside your agent, who we pay, not around them.

Not every sale should be a marketed campaign. This is a straight guide to who off-market selling suits, how it actually works, how it compares honestly to going to market, and how your agent fits into it.

Key facts

Best for: Privacy, tenanted assets, no-disruption sales
Process: Approach → NDA → terms → DD → settle
Agents: Bring yours — we pay their fee, always
Buyer type: Funded principal, permanent-hold
Campaign: None — no signboard, no public listing
Alternative: A marketed campaign — also legitimate, different trade-off

Who off-market selling suits

Privacy — Owners who don't want their financial position, their intentions, or the sale itself to become public knowledge.
Tenanted assets — Where a marketed campaign — signboards, inspections, a data room open to many parties — risks unsettling a tenant who doesn't yet know the building is for sale.
No-disruption sales — Owner-occupiers or landlords who need the sale to happen without any visible disruption to a trading business.
Offshore owners simplifying — Owners reassessing Australian holdings from overseas, including for reasons like Queensland's foreign land tax surcharge, who want a clean, quiet exit rather than a public process.

How it works with a direct buyer

The process is deliberately simple because there's only one buyer to deal with, not a market of them.

1Approach. You or your agent bring the opportunity to us directly and in confidence.
2NDA. A non-disclosure agreement is in place before any financial or property detail is shared.
3Indicative terms. We come back with a clear, direct indicative offer based on the property, its tenancy (if any) and the information provided.
4Due diligence. We carry out our due diligence in the background, with minimal disruption to you, your tenant or your business.
5Settle. Contracts exchange and settlement completes — quietly, without a campaign having existed at all.

Off-market versus a marketed campaign, honestly

Both routes are legitimate, and the right one depends on what you're optimising for. Here's the trade-off without spin.

	Marketed campaign	Off-market sale
What it optimises	Open-market tension between multiple bidders.	Certainty, speed and discretion with one buyer.
Best for	Vacant or generic assets where broad exposure adds real competitive tension.	Tenanted, sensitive or privacy-sensitive assets.
The catch	Signboards, inspections and public listing — no confidentiality, and no certainty of outcome until it's sold.	You're negotiating with one buyer, so you rely on trusting their offer is genuinely fair.
Role of your agent	Runs the campaign, manages inspections and negotiates on your behalf.	Can introduce, advise on and negotiate the deal — and is paid the same either way.

Working with your agent

An off-market sale is not a way to cut your agent out — quite the opposite. Many of the opportunities we act on come to us through agents, and we pay their fee in full when they introduce a vendor or a deal, exactly as we would if the sale had gone to a public campaign.

If you're already working with an agent, bring them into the conversation. They can advise you on whether the terms we're offering are fair, negotiate on your behalf, and manage the process alongside us. We're a direct principal buyer, not a replacement for the advice and representation an agent provides.

What a credible direct buyer looks like

Funded — Capital that's genuinely available, not conditional on finance falling into place after terms are agreed.
Principal, not intermediary — You're dealing with the actual buyer and decision-maker, not someone who will on-sell the contract or needs sign-off from elsewhere.
Track record — A history of completing what they say they will, on the terms agreed, without last-minute renegotiation.
Holds long term — A permanent-hold buyer, not a trader — relevant if you care what happens to the asset, or to any tenant, after settlement.

Common questions

Do you have a bigger building available right now?

That question's usually about buying, not selling — but the same principle applies here: we're demand-led on the buy side too. If you're selling, tell us about your property directly; we don't need it to fit a pre-existing shopping list.

Will selling off-market get me a lower price than a campaign?

Not necessarily. A campaign can generate competitive tension on a generic or vacant asset, but it isn't the only way to establish fair value — and for a tenanted or sensitive asset, the disruption a campaign causes can itself reduce what a buyer is willing to pay. We base our offer on the property and its tenancy, not on exploiting the absence of a campaign.

Can I involve my agent even if we're not running a campaign?

Yes, and we'd encourage it. Bring your agent into the conversation — they can advise you and negotiate on your behalf, and we pay their fee in full, the same as we would for an introduction that led to a marketed sale.

What if my building is tenanted — will the sale disturb my tenant?

That's precisely the situation off-market selling is designed for. Due diligence is conducted with minimal visibility, and as a permanent-hold buyer we're generally looking to keep a good tenant in place, not disrupt the tenancy.

How do I know your offer is genuinely fair if there's no campaign to compare it against?

Ask us to explain the basis for it, and bring your agent or valuer in to sanity-check it against comparable evidence. A credible direct buyer should be able to justify their number the same way a market process would test it — just with one buyer instead of many.

Is off-market selling only for large or institutional owners?

No — it suits any owner who values privacy, certainty or speed over the broadest possible market exposure. That includes owner-occupiers, family businesses and individual investors, as well as institutions and offshore owners.

Keep reading

For vendors What is an off-market sale?Sale & leaseback

Where we do this

All SEQ industrial locations Airport & Inner North Port of Brisbane & Trade Coast Southern Industrial Belt Outer South-West / Growth Logan Corridor Ipswich & Western Corridor Moreton Bay & North

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