2-4 Churchill Street, Mont Albert
A local investor bought the 254sqm corner building for $2.06 million. The ground floor comprises a brand-new surgery occupied by Mont Albert Dental and a corner retail tenancy, and the first floor has a 2-bedroom apartment. Fully leased income is $111,450pa plus outgoings and GST.
479 High Street, Prahran
The 200sqm shop and dwelling, on 160sqm of land, sold for $1.36 million. Longstanding tenant hair salon Blondes to Brunettes has a recently renewed 3+3-year lease and the property returns $65,596pa plus outgoings and GST.
395 Camberwell Road, Camberwell
An investor paid $1.18 million for the 144sqm building, which is leased to Bear It All Fitness on a 5-year deal that includes a demolition clause.
4/145 Gateway Boulevard, Epping
An investor paid $1.032 million for the 103sqm retail space, which has a new 7-year lease plus options to Indian restaurant Ludhiana Junction, bringing $61,800pa plus GST in rent.
Suite 304, 12-14 Cato Street, Hawthorn
The vacant 255sqm top-floor office was bought by a medical specialist for $1.38 million.
150 Cheshunt Street, Cremorne
A local marketing group bought a 154sqm office suite within the 3-level building for $915,000.
Offered with vacant possession, the 2.03-hectare site with multiple factories totalling 9,397sqm sold for $19 million.
98-100 Canterbury Road, Kilsyth South
An investor paid $3.305 million for the 659sqm workshop and warehouse, which is occupied by Bridgestone and on a 3,142sqm Industrial 1-zoned site. The tyre and auto company has a 5-year lease to December 2027 with a 5-year option, returning $137,315pa plus GST.
7-9 Lillian Street, North Geelong
The 803sqm warehouse, which has an additional 95sqm mezzanine and is on a 1,393sqm site zoned Industrial 2, sold for $1.7 million.
Building 1, 27 Fullarton Drive, Epping
A private investor bought the 369sqm corner office, showroom and warehouse building with 6 on-site car parks for $1.105 million.
Building 3, 27 Fullarton Drive, Epping
An owner-occupier bought the vacant 268sqm office and warehouse unit with 6 on-site car parks for $875,000.
154-156 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn
The pair of Edwardian-era houses changed hands between offshore developers for $7.2 million. They are on a 1,514sqm site that has a permit for an 18-unit apartment project.
172 Lower Plenty Road, Rosanna
The modern 3-storey development of 12 apartments sold for around $4.5 million-plus. It returns $284,304pa gross full leased, has 14 basement car parks and storage, and is on a 1,037sqm with planning approval for a 12-lot subdivision.
123 Albion Street, Brunswick
Frolic Early Learning leased the childcare centre, formerly occupied by Melbourne City Mission, on a 15-year deal with options at $516,600pa.
Church Street, Brighton Reaffirms Blue-Chip Status
Melbourne’s prime shopping strip market continues its rejuvenation as the city moves into spring, with another investment in the absolute prime of tightly held, blue-ribbon Church Street, Brighton selling on a sharp yield through Fitzroys.
Fitzroys’ Mark Talbot and Tom Fisher sold 48 Church Street, Brighton on behalf of the Ireland family. The campaign generated more than 100 enquiries, and marked the first time in nearly half a century that the property had been made available for sale.
The buyer was sourced from Fitzroys’ extensive investor database and sold for an undisclosed sum, on a sharp 3.6% yield.
The 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.
“The market recognised this as an ultimate set-and-forget Melbourne shopping strip investment. We continue to see buyers seek out well-located Melbourne shopping strip assets with secure leases to quality tenants at a time of share market and residential market volatility,” 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 was offered with a brand-new, secure lease to an international tenant.
“Yields in Church Street, Brighton haven’t really moved despite the run of interest rate rises over the past couple of years. Astute investors see the shopping strip as very stable and are anticipating future rate reductions, which will make the purchase all the more viable.”
“Melbourne’s shopping strips have demonstrated their resilience over recent years, and none more so than Church Street, Brighton.”
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.
“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,” Fisher said.
According to Fitzroys’ most recent Walk the Strip report, Church Street, Brighton is the perennial titleholder of the lowest vacancy rate of any of Melbourne’s iconic shopping strips. Its average vacancy rate over the past seven years of just 1.31% is well below the Melbourne-wide average of 7.59% in that time.
The rarity of sales on Church Street, Brighton over recent years has reaffirmed the strip’s blue-chip status. Fitzroys continues to remain the dominant agent in the area and has been responsible for almost all sales along Church Street since the NAB property at number 35 sold in September 2019. Fitzroys then sold the property again last year in a sensational $7.15 million sale that reflected a sharp 3.5% yield and land rate of $24,826/sqm.
Deals in that time have included Fitzroys’ sale of 51 Church Street, occupied by Flight Centre, which reflected a low yield of 3.2% and a building rate of $40,000/sqm; 13 Church Street for $6,070,000, setting a record for a single-fronted shop and on a yield of just 2.5%, and the sale of 28 Carpenter Street for $8.38 million, on a 3.08% yield.
The next test for Melbourne’s prime shopping strip market will come on Fitzroys auctions a dual-tenanted Burke Road, Camberwell freehold occupied by Specsavers and Woodfrog Bakery.
Fitzroys’ Chris James, David Bourke and Ben Liu are marketing 570-572 Burke Road, which will go to auction on Thursday, 17 October at 11.30am on-site.
The two-level dual-fronted building of 403sqm is occupied by international brand Specsavers on a 10+5-year lease and the popular Woodfrog Bakery on a 5+5-year lease, returning a fully leased income of $283,359pa plus outgoings and GST. Expectations are of circa $4.5 million.
Hellenic Club Sells Williams Landing Building for $26m
The Hellenic Club has sold a Williams Landing office building occupied by the Victorian government’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority for $25.93m.
Perth-based fund manager Ascot Capital bought the 3,126sqm building at 107 Overton Road, which was developed by Cedar Woods as part of its Williams Landing Town Centre master-planned development.
The building sold on a circa 6.4% yield.
Disclosure: The weekly Fitzroys Property Wrap is for information only on transactions in the Melbourne property market. Fitzroys provides this information as a public service. We are not purporting that all sales and leases within this report were transacted by Fitzroys. Terms/Privacy © Copyright 2023 Fitzroys.