A portfolio of 16 retail properties across 10 Melbourne suburbs, carefully collected over 70 years, is going under the hammer at Fitzroys’ Melbourne Retail Portfolio Auction later this month.
Fitzroys’ Mark Talbot, Tom Fisher and Chris Kombi are marketing the portfolio, amassed by late businessman Harry Oviss, which will go to auction at Leonda by the Yarra, 2 Wallen Road, Hawthorn, on Thursday, 23rd June from 11am.
The properties are being offered individually and are expected to sell for a combined circa $23 million.
They are all freehold in nature and located within established, well-supported shopping strips including in the heart of Swan Street, Richmond; adjacent to the high-performing Woolworths in Hampton Street, Hampton; and at the gateway to Koornang Road, Carnegie.
“There’s a mix of sizes, uses, price points and geographical locations. We’re expecting interest from investors, value-add players, land bankers and developers,” Talbot said.
“Many of the properties offer long-term leases in place to proven tenants while also enjoying the benefit of future value-add potential.”
A majority of properties are offered with secure 5+5-year leases, and many with ultra-rare 5% annual increases. Tenants range from high-performing eateries and takeaway food operators to long-standing service retailers.
“We’ve already received interest from a wide range of investors, from entry-level and first-time market participants to self-managed super fund buyers and more seasoned investors, all looking for secure long-term investments amid sharemarket and residential market volatility,” Talbot said.
“Well-located commercial property with long-term leases and sizeable annual increases like these are considered to present a more secure investment and safer place to put money in the current climate, even with further interest rate rises expected.”
Some properties are vacant or are offered with short-term leases.
Kombi said investors, value-add players, land bankers and developers will show interest in the properties’ locations within high-performing shopping strips that have weathered the COVID period admirably.
“Melbourne’s shopping strips have demonstrated their resilience over the past two years. The COVID period has reinforced their role as a place for Melburnians to connect with their local communities. Our ‘local village’ became something more than a place to run errands and do the shopping - it was the place to get a coffee, meet friends for a walk, or to break up the day while we were all working from home,” he said.
Opportunities also include shops in Glen Huntly Road and Hawthorn Road in Caulfield; Ranelagh Drive, Mt Eliza; High Street, Preston; Alfrieda Street, St Albans; and in Sunshine.
Fisher said the portfolio also presents a chance for investors to secure new assets before the end of the financial year.
Harry Oviss was born in 1923 and migrated to Australia with his Polish-born parents when he was 11 months old. He opened a knitwear shop in the iconic Block Arcade in Melbourne’s CBD when he was 19, and while collecting and developing properties across metropolitan Melbourne he earned a reputation as a successful clothing entrepreneur, construction magnate and art collector.