This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Westpac building in high-performing Church Street retail precinct in Brighton has sold at auction to a Melbourne family for $6.9 million.
CBRE’s Rorey James, Sandro Peluso and JJ Heng, in conjunction with Iles Real Estate’s Matthew Iles and Richard Seeley, sold the 92-94 Church Street property in front of a 150-strong auction crowd.
Westpac refitted the building in 2018 and has a triple net lease over the building until 2022 with no further options.
James said the property attracted strong interest from high net worth investors and groups with pre-approved finance, both domestic and international.
“We had 16 qualified groups attend the auction with an intention to bid and three competed for the asset following a very strong opening offer of $5.75 million,” he said.
The sale price translates to a tight 3.6% yield, a building rate of $20,000 per sqm and a land rate of $22,115 per sqm.
Widely recognised one of Melbourne’s highest performing shopping precincts, recent retail sales on Church Street have all been struck at tight yields.
The 102 sqm Sportscraft shop at number 17 sold for $4.35 million at a 2.79% yield, just one week after the Sportsgirl site at 89-91 sold for $8.2 million, $3.2 million above reserve and at a 2% yield. They followed the Smiggle store at number 67 trading at a 3.2% yield.
“The area’s affluent demographic, low vacancy and access to major council car parking and supermarkets at both ends of the street are qualities that attract investors to Church Street, Brighton,” James said.
Peluso said recent Melbourne retail transactions had demonstrated the “flight to quality” mindset of investors.
“Buyers are clearly showing a stronger appetite for high quality retail assets backed by reputable, national tenants, given the recent weakness in retail sales data,” he said.
Australian Property Journal