This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE home of Australia’s first Toyota dealership, currently used as an Australia Post distribution centre, has been sold for $23.5 million to a Chinese-backed developer.
Spanning a 3,469 sqm St Kilda parcel on the corner of Chapel Street, Brighton Road (Nepean Highway) and Grosvenor Street, the property has a planning scheme that provides potential for five to six levels over the site.
The property was owned by the Thurston family who acquired the site in 1973 and used it as a serving depot for cars. Australia Post’s lease extends to August 2024.
Julian White, Justin Dowers and Chao Zhang from Stonebridge Property Group sold the property, receiving 245 enquiries and 14 offers from a varied developer profile.
“Offers were received from a range of local and Asian based apartment developers, four build-to-rent groups, as well as a party looking to complete a vertical retirement living concept,” White said.
The sale price represented a land rate of $6,774 per sqm.
White said apartment developers were the most aggressive in the campaign, highlighting the growing optimism in this sector off the back of the current biggest spread in house and unit price median in history of recording.
“Something needs to give and apartments being targeted by home buyers for affordability reasons is the most likely outcome.”
Buyers were attracted to the high level of amenity offered in the precinct, as well as the inner-city positioning, as well as many apartment developers predicting improvement in the apartment market over the next couple of years and looking to secure good quality sites for their pipeline, the agents added.
Acquisitive developer Tim Gurner recently picked up a former bluestone church and Sunday school hall building in neighbouring Prahran for a $40 million luxury apartment and club project, while in St Kilda itself he is developing the first Club Maison project on the former site of nightclub Cushion Lounge on Fitzroy Street.
It is the same suburb in which Gurner is constructing the $550 million ultra-luxe Saint Moritz project on what used to be a Novotel hotel site, and which has been linked to high-profile celebrity names and record-breaking penthouse apartment sales figures.
BIS Oxford Economics believes the construction boom sparked by HomeBuilder will be picked up by the apartment sector in the coming years, driven by new public transport links, public housing renewal programs and the emerging build-to-rent sector.
