Commercial property investors push yields down to new low
Bullish investors pushed up the prices of investment properties and the corresponding yields down to a record low across Burgess Rawson auctions in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this week.
Over the past three days, 32 out of 41 properties were sold for a total of $134 million on a blended yield of 5.03 per cent, lower than the 5.10 per cent average yield recorded across 21 Burgess Rawson auctions last year.
Melbourne was the standout, featuring a blended yield of 4.51 per cent, the lowest of any of the company’s auctions, aided by exceptional demand for five large format retail assets.
At the final auction in Brisbane on Thursday, listing numbers were affected by the late surge of omicron in the state, with six properties put up for auction and five of them selling.
“Coming out of the gates a little slower, we found that vendors were hesitant to list property while Queensland was going through its first COVID outbreak,” Burgess Rawson partner Campbell Bowers said.
“But the buyer interest was there, and we had strong bidding across all the properties.”
Four out of the five Queensland properties sold to interstate investors, with the best result a showroom and retail outlet in Currumbin Waters with a new five-year lease sold to national electrical retailer Haymans.
After spirited bidding, the buyer paid $1.908 million for the property on a yield of 4.46 per cent.
Mr Bowers said Currumbin Waters, on the southern Gold Coast, is a “very, very busy area and property prices have just gone through the roof”.
The highest price paid on the day was $6.125 million for the fully leased ground floor of the Otto building at Mermaid Beach, also on the Gold Coast, with an initial annual rental return of $305,000.
It has a mixed tenant base including a dental surgery, laser clinic, radiologist and tax account. It sold on an initial yield of sold of 4.98 per cent.
