This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE insatiable demand for transport and logistics assets has filtered through to portfolio auctions usually dominated by fast food outlets, childcare centres and service stations, with an investor buying a Coates Hire facility in Adelaide under the hammer yesterday for $16.1 million, on a sharp yield of just 3.59%.
Some $83.26 million worth of commercial assets sold at yesterday’s Burgess Rawson online auction, which attracted 189 registered bidders. Billed as the Melbourne event, it was the first of three this week ahead of today’s Brisbane and tomorrow’s Sydney auctions, expected to reap a combined $260 million.
Twenty out of 21 assets sold, with four properties selling prior to the event, on a blended yield of 4.64%. The combined sale price was 11%, or $8.158 million above reserve.
The headline result was the Coates Hire warehouse at 1052 Port Road in Adelaide’s Albert Park. Bidding for the 18,488 sqm site began at $11 million before selling within 15 minutes for more than $5 million above that.
Coates Hire, part of ASX-listed Seven Group Holdings, has a new five-year lease with options over the site, which has a 6,718 sqm warehouse and a 277-metre frontage.
Bigger prices were achieved mostly by industrial assets. The Ford dealership in Sunbury sold for $9.61 million on a yield of 5.2% with a new 15-year lease, and having just undergone a $2.8 million upgrade.
An Epping warehouse occupied by liquor manufacturer Tailored Beverage Company on a five-year lease with options fetched $6.3 million at 5.16%, and a Nubco Warehouse on 12,120 sqm of land in Tasmania’s Devonport sold for $5,275,000, at 5.5% with a seven-year lease to 2026 plus options to the subsidiary of ASX-listed Coventry Group.
Six of the first seven properties in the order of sale were all on leaseback agreements across essential service sectors. That began with the $3.83 million sale of the Kingston Funerals home in Melbourne’s Cheltenham, on a yield of 3.78%.
Three United fuel assets changed hands in that early block. In Melbourne, a Lilydale asset sold for $4.75 million at 4.6%, and a Somerville centre for $3.625 million at 4.76%, while in Adelaide’s Seaton the $4.35 million sale represented a 5% yield.
One of the day’s sharpest yields went to a Domino’s pizza outlet in St Kilda, of 3.92% on the $1.435 million price. That was followed a Capital Radiology clinic in St Albans selling prior to auction for $6 million, at 4.21%.
Another food and beverage property, a café in Geelong, sold for $690,000 at 4.35%, while the Micrenz Bakery in Benalla sold for $905,000 on a 4.64% return, and an Indian grocer in Wollert fetched $1,075,000, at 4.93%.
Another medical in Albury sold for $4.185 million, at 4.63%, while a Lakeview Early Learning childcare centre in Lilydale sold for $1.6 million, at 4.46%.
A pair of Where We Grow childcare centres in South Australia’s Angle Vale and Strathalbyn sold prior for undisclosed amounts.
