The transaction, equivalent in scale to the recent $1.1 billion sale of the GIC Real Estate industrial property portfolio to another Singapore-based group Ascendas, will propel Redwood as a major player status in Australia's commercial market.

JP Morgan Asset Management bought the assets it is now selling just over a year ago when it swooped on the regional real estate platform of Aviva Investors.

The portfolio comprises six assets, equal to a combined 150,000 square metres of prominently located and tenanted industrial properties in and around Sydney.

Charter Hall Group's $500 million industrial portfolio includes properties in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, as well as one warehouse in South Australia.

Cheap debt and low interest rates have resulted in many large offshore groups targeting  Australia's relatively high yields (by global standards) and the industrial sector's typically long leases, and paying record prices in the process.

The $1.1 billion sale of GIC Real Estate's prime industrial property portfolio to Ascendas was completed on a yield around 6 per cent.

Prime industrial yields have compressed by 80 to 100 basis points since mid-2014 in the east coast markets, according to CBRE research.

AMP Capital global head of property Carmel Hourigan said demand for for high-quality Australian real estate was "insatiable."

"With major institutional investors from Japan, China and Norway yet to put a toe in the water in Australia, we expect capital markets to remain deep for some time yet," she said.

High quality real estate was limited so landmark portfolio transactions were commanding a lot of interest with a lot of domestic players priced out of the race, she said.

Large scale portfolio plays have not been the only active segment of the market.

Even without the much anticipated boost for agricultural products from Australia's recent free trade agreement with China, online shopping and food distribution are shaping up be a major force in industrial property in 2016.

Online retailing is likely to expand its footprint across the country by 3 million square metres over the next five years, agency CBRE predicts.

Industrial director Matt Haddon said Australia's industrial landscape was evolving with a significant spike in demand from businesses with an online sales component.

"Increasing appetite levels from this sector of the market will absorb space created by the demise of car manufacturing, and ultimately shift the focus of Australia's industrial market from manufacturing to transports and logistics and online retail," he said.

Food producers and dairy groups have also been actively expanding over the past year.

Victorian-based Murray Goulburn leased 24,662 square metres in Laverton North and a major 42,000-square-metre facility in Somerton in 2015 while its competitor Australian Dairy Group also took sizeable chunks of industrial space in Laverton North.

Two other dairy giants, Fonterra and Parmalat, were also looking for more than 100,000 square metres between them in Melbourne.

Colliers International agribusiness director Shane McIntyre said supermarket giants like Wesfarmers, Woolworths and Metcash had, up until now, dominated the use of large scale distribution and specialised cold storage systems.

That was likely to change once recent trade deals with China, South Korea and Japan started to significantly boost exports.

"We expect to see primary producers, collectives and existing logistical providers interject themselves further into the food product supply chain beyond the farm gate," Mr McIntyre said.