One of Melbourne’s best shopping strip investment offerings of 2024 - in the absolute prime of tightly held, blue-ribbon Church Street, Brighton - is going to auction in September, as the market experiences a period of rejuvenation heading into spring.
Fitzroys’ Mark Talbot and Tom Fisher are marketing 48 Church Street, Brighton on behalf of the Ireland family, with the property going to auction on Friday, 6 September at 1pm.
Expectations are of $4 million-plus.
The campaign marks the first time in nearly half a century that the property has been made available for sale.
The immaculately-presented 155sqm property is securely leased international tenant Bed Bath N’ Table on a new 5+5-year agreement returning $171,600pa plus GST. Bed Bath N’ Table has been successfully trading from the location for 20 years, and has 180 stores throughout Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
“This is undoubtedly one of the best Melbourne shopping strip investment opportunities of 2024,” Talbot said.
“The property is in the absolute prime of what is widely regarded as Melbourne’s - and perhaps Australia’s - best performing shopping strip, and is offered with a brand-new, secure lease to an international tenant. It’s the ultimate set-and-forget Melbourne shopping strip investment.”
The property is positioned within the most highly sought-after and tightly-held section of Church Street, between Carpenter and St Andrews streets, and opposite a busy pedestrian crossing. Neighbouring tenants include a number of Australia’s leading high-end retailers in Scanlan Theodore, Country Road, Mecca, Sportscraft, Husk, Mecca, Trenery, and Saba, as well as major banks, supermarkets, and the famous Dendy cinema complex
“Melbourne’s shopping strips have demonstrated their resilience over recent years, and none more so than Church Street, Brighton. The strip is the beneficiary of one of Melbourne’s most affluent and established catchments that brings a high spending power, and together with its constrained nature means there is always a long-line of tenants waiting for the rare opportunity to get into the strip.”
According to Fitzroys’ most recent Walk The Strip report, Church Street, Brighton recorded the lowest vacancy of any of Melbourne’s iconic shopping strips, at an ultra-low 1.1%. Its average vacancy rate over the past seven years, at just 1.31%, is well below the Melbourne-wide average of 7.59% in that time.
“Well-located Melbourne shopping strip assets with secure leases to quality tenants represent excellent buying at a time of share market and residential market volatility.” Fisher said, “We’re expecting interest from locals and Melbourne buyers, and from interstate and international parties as well.
“Church Street, Brighton’s reputation reaches far and wide.”
The rare sales on Church Street, Brighton over recent years have reaffirmed the strip’s blue-chip status. Fitzroys has been responsible for almost all sales along Church Street since the NAB property at number 35 sold in September 2019. The agency then sold the property again last year in a sensational $7.15 million deal that reflected a sharp 3.5% yield and land rate of $24,826/sqm.
Another sale transacted by Fitzroys was 51 Church Street, occupied by Flight Centre which reflected a low yield of 3.2% and a building rate of $40,000 per sqm.