This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A CHILDCARE centre development site in Sydney’s north west has been sold for $5.061 million at auction, setting what is believed to be a new record sale rate per childcare place in Australia.
Approved for a 50-place facility, the 1,349 sqm parcel of land at 25 Ray Road in Epping was bought by local childcare operator Healing the World Pty Ltd at a rate of $101,220 per place.
According to selling agents Knight Frank, the rate was 35% higher than the previous record set for a site, at 6-8 Waterloo Street in Rozelle at the end of 2019, also sold by Knight Frank.
The auction campaign was run by Demi Carigliano, Anthony Pirrottina and Grant Bulpett of Knight Frank on behalf of a local investor. It resulted in 47 bids from six registered bidders and saw the property sell for $861,000 over the reserve.
Currently, the property is occupied by a four-bedroom single storey residential dwelling with 36 metres of street frontage, and will be repurposed for the new centre.
Carigliano said the Epping property benefited from “being in a nice tree-lined street”, and purchasers had been attracted to its existing development approval, strategic location in the Epping town centre, and the potential for expansion.
“The approved design is efficient, incorporating the existing dwelling into the plan, with no basement required due to on-grade parking,” he said. There is the potential to increase capacity to 60 places, with the R4 zoning also permitting a range of uses including apartments.
Completed childcare centre sites have been a dominant part of portfolio auctions in recent years, including at week’s trio of Burgess Rawson events that saw a NSW record yield of 2.99% achieved for the Affiinity Childcare centre at Umina Beach.
Pirrottina said it was rare for DA-approved childcare development sites to come to the market, but when they did they were very highly sought after.
