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 $171,600 per annum 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 deal that reflected a sharp 3.5% yield and land rate of $24,826 per 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 per 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 Thursday, 26 September when 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 at 2pm 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 $283,359 per annum plus outgoings and GST.

Expectations are of circa $4.5 million.