New South Wales

THE Sydney CBD's new Mid City Retail Arcade has secured Virgin Active as a major tenant.

Virgin will lease 4500 square metres over two floors at the 420 George Road complex, due to open in September.

In keeping with industry standards of having two members per square metre, the gym will be limited to about 9000 members.

AMP Capital Investors has offloaded its Glenmore Park shopping centre near Penrith for a reported $40 million.

The purchasers, a family syndicate called Village Fair Group, plan to expand the centre to include a discount department store and about 30 specialty shops.

The 4.5 hectare site includes as tenants: Woolworths, McDonald's, ANZ and Australia Post.

AUSTRALIA's prestige real estate market seems to be going from strength to strength, with an overseas-based investor paying close to $30 million for a villa style mansion in Sydney's ritzy Vaucluse.

The six-bedroom home was marketed by Ray White Real Estate's Prestige Sales Michael Finger, who said five parties competed for the property, which has Sydney Harbour views.

The sale price surpasses the 2010 record held when the former Toorak estate of Diana Baillieu, in Melbourne, sold to a property developer for $25 million - or about $10 million more than the price it sold for, a year earlier.

MIRVAC Group has made $29.5 million from the sale of its Chester Square shopping centre in Sydney's west.

The Chester Hill sale follows that last month of the Moonee Beach Shopping Centre, on the NSW north coast to the listed Gowing Brothers for $12.5 million.

The company has also sold its Kwinana Hub shopping centre in Perth for $25 million.