This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Officeworks store at Ballarat has sold to a private syndicate of Melbourne investors for $7.75 million on a 5.19% yield.
CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Justin Dowers and Joseph Du Rieu sold the property, at 116 Creswick Rd, on behalf of a Sydney-base private investor.
The 4,117sqm landholding features a 2,117sqm building purpose-built for Officeworks and was sold with a new eight-year lease returning $402,500 per annum.
Dowers said the property, which sold two weeks prior to the close of the EOI campaign, was further evidence of the strength of demand from investors seeking premium retail properties.
“We were overwhelmed with the response from the buyer market for the property and the purchaser ultimately presented an attractive offer to ensure they would secure the investment,” Dowers said. “Achieving an initial yield of 5.19% for an older asset is a clear statement of the strength in the current buyer market seeking secure retail investment properties with potential for growth in income,”
Du Rieu said the current shortage of investment grade retail properties was leading to further yield compression for assets with blue chip lease covenants backed by heavy weights such as Wesfarmers or Woolworths.
“With the current environment characterised by a lack of premium retail investment offerings, we are seeing an unrivalled level of demand for these properties, with this likely to continue driving strong returns for vendors,” he concluded.
Australian Property Journal
