This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEARLY 18 months after being its initial listing, Drysdale Village on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula has found a buyer at $13.9 million, below early expectations.
Originally constructed in the 1970s, the neighbourhood shopping centre is anchored by a 2,699 sqm Woolworths supermarket with seven complementary specialty stores. The Woolworths lease expires in 2025 and includes eight further five year options.
The sale price came at a passing yield of 6.72%. Stuart Taylor and Tom Noonan of JLL negotiated the off-market transaction.
“Driven by record low costs of debt, private investors are highly motivated to secure such assets with transactions constrained only by supply,” they said.
The private owners of two decades listed the fully leased 3,130 sqm centre in October 2018, with initial hopes of more than $15 million.
Coles divested its 3,775 sqm new-format Drysdale supermarket at a 5.36% yield one year ago. The one-hectare site on Murradoc Road sold with a 15-year leaseback. Drysdale is within the City of Greater Geelong, about 19 kilometres east of the Geelong CBD.
Investors eyeing growth in the region have spurred a rare run of retail sales activity across sub sectors through Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula over the past 24 months.
Among the more recent deals are Vicinity Centres’ sale of the 31,052 sqm sub-regional Corio Central anchored by Coles, Woolworths and Kmart for $101 million.
The freestanding Woolworths and BWS in Lara sold for $21.55 million, on a yield of just below 6%, and the Woolworths-anchored Curlewis traded for about $17 million.
During 2018, Charter Hall Retail REIT paid $117 million for the Gateway Plaza shopping centre in Leopold, a private investor acquired the Woolworths-anchored Bellarine Village in Newcombe for $37 million, at a circa 6.3% yield, and Coles offloaded Torquay Village Shopping Centre for $35 million at an initial yield of 5.89%.
