This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
INTERSTATE and offshore investors accounted for seven purchasers of the eight properties that changed hands as part of last week’s Burgess Rawson portfolio auction event in Melbourne, as buyer confidence returns to the childcare sector.
That followed all five properties selling at the previous day’s Sydney edition – a smaller total offering than usual – for a total of $35 million worth of investments changing hands over the two days.
Of the assets on offer at Melbourne’s Crown Casino event, three childcare centres accounted for some of the biggest price tags achieved. A double-storey facility of 848 sqm tenanted by Green Leaves at Albany Creek in Queensland sold to a Melbourne buyer for $5.875 million on a 6.03% yield, with a 15-year triple net lease plus two options, while a Sydney investor paid $4.815 million for a G8 Education centre in Curlewis, near Geelong, at a 6.38% yield with a lease 2028 and three 10-year options.
Another centre at Maddingley, near Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, sold after auction for $4.325 million on a 7.21% yield. The 793 sqm facility has a 15-year triple net lease to Affinity Education and two five-year options.
Burgess Rawson childcare specialist Adam Thomas said childcare was again squarely on investors’ radars. The agency has also just sold another G8-leased centre, at Epping, which for $4.78 million on a yield of 5.78%.
“The standout result for the Albany Creek property is right in line with the sale of the Buderim centre on a 6.02% yield at our last auction, while the Curlewis result is very similar to another of our regional Victorian sales at Wodonga, which recently sold on a 6.42% yield,” Thomas said.
“This clear demand means childcare asset sales have an air of predictability around them, which is driving further confidence in the market.”
The childcare sector has been moving into a recovery phase as supply levels readjust following a spike in development levels, and the federal government’s childcare subsidies flow through to occupancy levels and operators’ bottom lines.
A Perth investor snapped up the event’s trophy asset, a Coles Express service station positioned alongside a Brisbane shopping centre at Silkstone, for $3.765 million at a 5.34% yield.
Moments before the auction, a South African buyer took a government-tenanted asset Queensland office with a $2.7 million offer.
A Sydney investor picked up a small Indian food grocer in Cranbourne North in Melbourne’s south-east for $735,000, on a 6.12% yield, and another Sydney investor purchased the Coffee Club café in Mount Isa for $865,000.
The only property to be knocked down to a buyer from its own state was a NAB-leased building at Corowa in New South Wales, for which a Sydney purchaser paid $681,000 on 6.49% yield.
At the previous day’s Sydney event, a 4,077 sqm Mobil-branded truck stop and service station site in Wodonga sold just before going to auction for $1.005 million, with a net annual income of $70,697 plus GST.
Another service station, leased to Woolworths to 2022 with options to 2032 at 110-112 Princes Highway in Unanderra, sold for $2.35 million with a net income of $166,057 per annum plus GST per annum.
The modern 3,297 sqm Bunnings Warehouse at 123 Smith St in Kempsey on the mid-north coast sold for $5.17 million with a lease until 2024 and options to 2049, returning $344,364 per annum plus GST. The 6,947 sqm has 48 parking spaces.
Also changing hands at the event were a Ballina building leased to federal government-funded Family Centre Australia, for $780,000 and bringing $50,153 per annum plus GST net, and the premises of Gold Coast fish and chip shop Millie Weiss in Paradise Point for $1.1 million. The 59sqm building is on a 531sqm site at Lot 2/38 The Esplanade and offers broadwater views, and returns $67,000 per annum net plus GST.