Metropolitan office assets in season: Melbourne’s eastern suburbs have seen a flurry of office asset transactions, led by Hong Kong-listed Glorious Sun making two acquisitions totalling $28 million.
The company paid $18.4 million for the corner office building at 255 Whitehorse Road in Balwyn at a 4.5% passing yield. Tenants within the two-level building of 2,783sqm include Kidman Partners, and the final vacant space is being filled in the coming weeks, bringing the total return to around $875,000.
Glorious Sun also purchased the 2,348sqm 16 Lakeside Drive building in the Tally Ho Business Park in Burwood for $9.6 million. The Country Fire Authority occupies the ground floor and the first floor is vacant.
Close by, a China-based investor purchased the VicRoads headquarters at 12 Lakeside Drive for $25.5 million. The three-level, 4,509sqm building was purpose-built for the government agency in 1996, which has recently renewed its lease for three years.
News Corporation reportedly offloaded the 1 Chapel Street building in Blackburn, home of Leader Newspapers, for $30.2 million to Vantage Property Investments, which itself divested office assets in Mulgrave and Box Hill earlier this year for a total of around $24.5 million.
In Hawthorn, design and construction company Qanstruct offloaded the converted Congregational Church building for $9.85 million in a sale and leaseback deal, with an eight-year term plus options over the circa-1881 building that returns $500,000 gross.
It oversaw the overhaul of the building after taking over the 1,998sqm site in 2001, which now has 714sqm of office space over two levels.
South-east childcare centres continue to change hands: A Bentleigh childcare centre operating as Buckets Early Learning has sold to an offshore investor for $11.7 million, at a 5.53% yield. The 1,310sqm site at 188 Tucker Road has a 1,165sqm building area with an 870sqm underground car park, and is licensed for 144 places.
It follows the $11.3 million sale of a Nino Early Learning Facility in Elsternwick, currently being constructed at an historic mansion site, which traded at a 5.97% yield.
This year has also seen a private buyer pay $9.5 million for the brand-new 139-place facility at 1066 Centre Road in Oakleigh South, leased until 2042 and returning $600,000 per annum; and an investor acquire the Bentleigh East site at 359-361 Chesterville Road, leased to ASX-listed Think Child Care for $5.6 million, at a 5.85% yield.
Disclosure: The Fitzroys Weekly 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.