$100 million-plus in play as investors seek out assets
The Commonwealth Bank branch in Camberwell Junction.

$100 million-plus in play as investors seek out assets

Anne Kantor, the sister of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has reaped a scorching $12.06 million from the sale of the Commonwealth Bank branch in Camberwell Junction.

Fitzroys agents Chris James and David Bourke had expected around $8 million for the 844 square metre bank.

The double-storey building at 735-737 Burke Road had been held by the Kantor family since 1997. It’s April auction was pulled last week for a shorter expressions of interest campaign.

Mr James said the deal reflected a sharp 3.5 per cent yield.

The bank has a new seven-year lease with two five year options. It’s on a 490 sq m corner site with a long 15.7-metre frontage to Burke Road and returns $425,000 a year in rent.

Competition for the blue-chip retail – eight offers in this uncertain market – shows there is more than $70 million chasing commercial property, he said.

The result bodes well for the ANZ branch at 614-616 Burke Road, which Gorman Commercial agents Jonathon McCormack and Stephen Gorman are marketing.

Mulgrave calling

Hansen Technologies boss Andrew Hansen has sold a Mulgrave office building just days after the sales campaign closed.

A local private investor spent $6.6 million on the 372 Wellington Road office reflecting a soft yield of 7.25 per cent.

Fitzroys agents Mr James, Mr Bourke and Shawn Luo fielded five offers for the double-storey 1675-square-metre office.

“More than 70 parties made enquiries, leading to five strong offers for the property,” Mr James said.

“Reassuringly, there is still quite a substantial amount of capital to be invested in the Melbourne market. This campaign demonstrated there are four underbidders with around $6.5 million each to spend” he said.

Owner-occupiers and investors prepared to take a chance on risky investments are most active in the current market, he said.

The property, in the heart of the south-eastern suburbs science and technology belt, is leased to a raft of ASX-listed and government tenants, including Ambulance Victoria and IMCD Australia. It returns around $479,600 a year in rent.

However, the property has a weighted average lease expiry of only two years, making it quite a risky investment.

“It’s quite a substantial building. It’s a bit of a diamond in the rough. All the leases are short term and the rents are low so there’s a strong value-add to the building,” he said.

It’s on a substantial 4,742-square-metre corner site with 70 on-site parking spaces. Mr Hansen and Tanya Hansen bought the property ten years ago for $4.65 million.

Next door, 362 Wellington Road has also changed hands. An owner-occupier snapped up the larger 3775 sq m building for $9.1 million.

A caveat on the property’s title shows the Kha Group has bought the office which is on a large 8719-square-metre land holding with room for 198 car parks.

Savills agents Benson Zhou, Clinton Baxter and Julian Heatherich did the deal.

The vendor, a group of locally-based Chinese investors, paid $8.8 million for the property in late 2017, the peak of the market.

Seventh Day

Meanwhile, in these medically-focused times, the expressions of interest campaign for the Warburton Hospital closes mid-week.

The hospital is on a 8 hectare site in the Yarra Valley that boasts Californian Redwood trees dating back to the early 20th century.

The hospital was originally built in 1912 as a sanitarium by the Seventh Day Adventists church. The church sold up in the 1990s after building a new multi-storey hospital in 1994, during the depths of the recession. It has five other buildings on the site and could be converted into an upmarket spa.

It operated as a drug and alcohol rehab facility until the early 2000s.

CBRE agents Sandro Peluso, Marcello Caspani-Muto, Josh Twelftree and Jimmy Tat are running the campaign along with hotels specialist Scott Callow.