This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THREE brand-new adjoining warehouses in a fast-evolving industrial precinct in Melbourne’s south have sold for more than $12.5 million.
Poplar Construction bought the 6,272 sqm parcel in Cranbourne West two years ago for $440 per sqm, or about $2.76 million, through Colliers’ Luke Lowden and Sam Hibbins, who were recently appointed to the three industrial facilities at 14, 16 and 18 Furlong Street in conjunction with CBRE.
“We worked with Poplar Constructions to create warehouses that would fill a gap in the market, as the stock for assets of between 1,000 to 2,000 sqm sizes are scarce,” Lowden said.
“We received a high volume of interest for the brand-new warehouses, particularly from owner occupiers,” he said. Owner occupiers were ultimately the purchasers, with each expanding and relocating from other industrial warehouses in various Melbourne.
All three sales were secured two months prior to completion at an average sqm rate of $2,622 per sqm.
Some 40 kilometres from the CBD, Cranbourne West offers easy access to some of the south east’s major road networks, including Thompson Road, Frankston Dandenong Road and the South Gippsland Highway.
“Cranbourne West is no longer a peripheral south eastern industrial location. It is attracting strong demand from occupiers and investors due to its proximity to EastLink (M3) and being surrounded by some of Victoria’s fastest growing residential suburbs,” Hibbins said.
The Cranbourne West industrial precinct is set to quadruple in size within the next three to five years, largely due to ESR’s upcoming 79-hectare Green Link estate and Salta’s 123 -hectare 690 Westernport Highway Industrial Estate.
Hibbins said owner occupier demand is expected to continue exceeding sale supply and prices to remain strong given most of these new industrial developments are offered for leasehold only.
