136-140 Bridport Street, Albert Park
The 3 shops on one title sold for $2,160,000 which represented a record land rate for the area of $21,386/sqm. All shops are fully leased to service retail providers.
288-292 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn
An investor paid circa $11.2 million for the 478sqm Dan Murphy’s-occupied building, formerly an ANZ branch, which is on 687sqm of land. Dan Murphy’s’ parent company Endeavour has a 10-year lease with options to 2047 returning $537,728pa.
1 & 2/10 Winki Way, Torquay
An investor paid $5.05 million on a 5.17% yield for the 1,130sqm building across 2 units, which includes a Petstock showroom and sub-lease to Fur Life Vet clinic. Petstock has a lease to December 2027 plus options to 2041, and total net return is $260,880pa plus GST.
97-101a Great Ocean Road, Anglesea
The 418sqm building, comprising 4 ground-floor retail tenancies and a vacant first-floor 1-bedroom apartment sold for around $4 million. It currently returns $178,000pa.
233-233A Union Road, Ascot Vale
An investor paid $1.83 million for the 294sqm 2-level shop and dwelling, on 247sqm of land. Samantha Tayla Hair has a 5+5+5+5-year lease over the ground-floor retail space, returning $53,294.56pa plus outgoings and GST. The top floor can potentially return more than $44,000pa.
27-29 Regent Street, Prahran
The 267sqm Activity Centre-zoned building with 4 secure undercover car parks sold for $1.5 million.
Warehouses 1 and 2, 14 Patch Circuit, Laverton
A private investor paid $20 million to acquire the 2 freestanding office and warehouse buildings, which are on the largest land parcel within Time & Place’s 70-lot industrial land subdivision. Each warehouse has 3,350 sqm of gross lettable area.
101 Gateway Boulevard, Epping
Offered with vacant possession, the 828sqm office and warehouse sold for $3.1 million.
43 Nevin Drive, Thomastown
The 243sqm office and warehouse on a 467sqm site sold with a short-term lease to an investor for $836,000.
7/15 The Gateway, Broadmeadows
The 215sqm vacant office and warehouse with 2 car spaces sold for $740,000.
93-97 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
A developer paid $18.88 million for the 7,015sqm site, which is occupied by gym operator Genesis and clothes retailer Rivers and returns $666,948pa in rent. The site has a permit for 277 apartments across 2 towers.
In another sign of the health of Melbourne’s shopping strip investment market, separate investors have bought two adjoining Brunswick Street, Fitzroy shops in a strong set of results.
Fitzroys’ Chris Kombi, Ervin Niyaz, Ben Liu and Shane Mills sold 340 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy - the birthplace of international tea brand T2 - as well as the next door Blackout Lounge at 342 Brunswick Street.
The properties had been held within the same four families since 1976.
340 Brunswick Street comprises a beautifully presented 260sqm two-storey building and sold for $1.72 million, on a tight yield of 4.3%.
Next door, 342 Brunswick Street comprises a fully activated 330sqm two-storey building and sold for $1.85 million, at a 4.6% yield. Blackout Lounge is an acclaimed bar and wood-fired pizza and Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant, and a popular part of Brunswick Street’s nightlife scene.
The classic buildings are in a sought-after position in the centre of the famous Brunswick Street, Fitzroy hospitality, entertainment and lifestyle precinct.
“The properties represented a generational opportunity to acquire a prime Brunswick Street, Fitzroy investment, located in the absolute heart of one of Melbourne's most vibrant hospitality and lifestyle strips,” Kombi said.
“These strong results are another vote of confidence in Brunswick Street. They also show the healthy demand out there for quality Melbourne shopping strip retail assets.
“The market has really come to life this Spring and we’re seeing more investors turn to quality Melbourne shopping strip assets for security at a time of share market and residential market volatility,” Mills said.
Niyaz said, “Investors were attracted to the strong cashflow from quality tenants, with great rental uplift and value-add prospects in the coming years. There’s consistently strong competition between tenants for space along he prime trading section Brunswick Street. We saw a number of investors in these campaigns looking to get a foothold in the high- performing strip.”
The investors intend to hold the properties as passive investments, he added.
Vacancies on Melbourne’s archetypal inner north hospitality and lifestyle strip are well below the long-term average as Melburnians again embraced shopping, dining and eating out.
According to Fitzroys’ most recent Walk The Strip report, vacancies on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy now sit at just 5.1%, having sat at 12.2% during the COVID period.
StorHub Continues Australian Expansion
Singapore-based self-storage facility owner and operator StorHub has continued its Australian expansion, acquiring a warehouse site in Burnley for $20.5 million.
The 173-177 Barkly Avenue site comprises a single-level heritage-style warehouse that has been converted into a showroom and office and is occupied Rogerseller. The kitchen and bathroom supplier has been at the former Telstra-occupied site since 2009 and has a lease until August 2025 returning $516,250pa.
StorHub intends to develop new high-density storage facility at the site. It was acquired from Salta, which paid nearly $15 million for the property in 2019 and had since obtained a permit for a 7-storey commercial building designed by Gray Puksand.
StorHub is backed by global private equity giant Warburg Pincus and launched into the Australian market earlier this year with 5 assets, including one in Clifton Hill, as well as in Sydney and Canberra. It has since grown that portfolio to 11 assets nationally.
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.