Currently a second-hand car dealership, the 488sqm site is zoned Activity Centre and has a combined corner frontage of 49 metres.

“Developers are taking a longer-term view beyond COVID and the current lockdowns,” Kombi said.

“Highly accessible sites near quality retail, hospitality and lifestyle strips and continue to be heavily favoured by developers during a period of more flexible working arrangements.”

The site is close to a number of cafés, eateries and venues that give Sydney Road, Coburg its reputation as a popular lifestyle destination for locals, as well as Woolworths and Coles supermarkets, and national and local retailers, and is on the Route 19 tram line.

The inner-north corridor along and around Sydney Road, stretching upwards from Brunswick has seen a multitude of medium and high-density projects built in recent years and in the current pipeline, Kombi said. Smaller private developers through to institutional and listed companies, including Mirvac, Stockland and Hines are all active in the area.

Near the Sydney Road site, New Zealand aged care company Ryman has just sold a 1.2-hectare Coburg parcel to a private developer.

The Sydney Road transaction is the latest in a string of development site sales recently negotiated by the agency. They include a 700sqm site on the edge of Camberwell Junction, zoned General Residential, to a local developer for $3.5 million in another off-market deal.

Fitzroys has sold corner sites at 700 High Street, Thornbury, which has a triple frontage and is zoned Commercial 1, to a local developer with preliminary plans for a mixed-use development, while in Bulleen, Fitzroys sold the 1,391sqm corner site at 118-120 Manningham Road to a developer looking to immediately restock their project pipeline.

Located across two elevated blocks the site sold with permit approval for 32 apartments over four levels.