This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ONE of Victoria’s largest non-profit providers of supported accommodation, Baptcare, has sold one of its former aged care homes for the first time, netting $5.5 million for a northern Melbourne facility.
A private investor bought the 48-room home at 547-567 Bell Street in Preston and will convert the property into specialist disability accommodation.
The corner landholding spans 2,637 sqm nine kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD, and features additional access via Scotia Street and a rear laneway. The 1,850 sqm, two-level building features also includes several communal areas and separate offices.
“The size and scope of the existing improvements are substantial and Baptcare maintained the premises to a high standard,” said CBRE’s Marcello Caspani-Muto, who sold the property with colleagues Sandro Peluso and Jimmy Tat.
“While there were developers looking at the property, it’s the improvement value that really drives price for these assets, particularly in the current economic climate.
“At the end of the process there were four shortlisted parties competing for the property, all with a use for the exiting building either via extension, renovation or reposition.”
The sale is the fifth of a vacant retirement or aged-care home in Australia this year, according to the agents. Over the coming weeks, vacant facilities in Glen Waverley and Northcote in Victoria, and Cairns, Clayfield and Toowoomba in Queensland will also hit the market.
Peluso said the CBRE team had sold an average of two vacant aged-care homes in 2018, 2019 and 2020, before selling five last year and hitting that mark already in 2022.
“Existing healthcare and aged-care users are the most active parties, however this Baptcare site is among the facilities that have been purchased by an investor looking to re-lease or convert the existing improvements,” Peluso said.
