Caltex lists c$120 million portfolio of 25 development sites

Petroleum giant Caltex is selling a portfolio of 25 metropolitan service stations, speculated to be worth a total of about $120 million.

The properties are squarely being targeted to builders – the marketing agents saying β€œthe portfolio offered a timely opportunity for apartment, mixed use, retail, hotel and build-to-rent developers” to stock up.

The assets are available for purchase individually, in any combination or as a whole.

The Caltex service station in Melbourne’s Brunswick East.

Sixteen are in New South Wales (including one in Bondi, pictured, top), seven are in Victoria, one is on Queensland’s Gold Coast and the other is in Western Australia.

Being located on high profile roads, their value as residential development sites are – in some cases, at record highs.

Caltex will offer the parcels fully re-mediated – which will make them more attractive to the market.

The offerings allow a purchaser to add-value by obtaining a permit, then on-selling.

The Clayton site in Melbourne is within a retail zone, and next door to a supermarket, making it attractive a developer proposing a mixed-use with medium-density residential.

CBRE’s Mark Wizel and Julian White with Stonebridge’s Lincoln Blackledge are the marketing agents.

β€œThe fact that the bulk of the sites are extremely well located to transport, schools and town centres make them ideal for apartments but for the same reasons they are also well suited to a range of other uses,” Mr Wizel said.

Most of the blocks range in size from 1200 square metres to 2500 sqm.

β€œCoincidentally those types of projects are ones which the banks are now much more amenable to providing funding for,” the agent added.

β€œMarket drivers such as the improving domestic residential clearance rate, low interest rates and ongoing population growth would also be top of mind for prospective purchasers”.

Local and international developers, including builders which might want to consolidate a position in the Australian market, are on the agents’ radar.

The portfolio

382-386 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, Victoria

793-797 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill, Victoria

147 Koornang Road, Carnegie, Victoria

409 Clayton Road (corner Centre Road), Clayton, Victoria

484 Canterbury Road, Brentford Square, Forest Hill, Victoria

521 Nepean Highway, Frankston, Victoria

281 Gaffney Street (corner Derby Street), Pascoe Vale, Victoria

222 Tongarra Road (corner Calderwood Street), Albion Park, NSW

51 Bondi Road (corner Park Road), Bondi, NSW

646 Hume Highway, Casula, NSW

369-375 Concord Road, Concord West, NSW

191-195 Lyons Road, Drummoyne, NSW

116 Victoria Road, Gladesville, NSW

287-295 Victoria Road (corner Stansell Road), Gladesville North, NSW

240 Maitland Road, Islington, NSW

125 O’Riordan Street, Mascot, NSW

225 Woodville Road (corner Lackey Street), Merrylands, NSW

Luxford Road (corner Mount Street), Mt Druit, NSW

26 Enmore Road, Newtown, NSW

98 March Street (corner East Market Street), Richmond, NSW

488 Old South Head Road (corner Albemarle), Rose Bay, NSW

414-416 Prices Highway, Sylvania Heights, NSW

73-75 King Street (corner Hoskins Street), Warrawong, NSW

141 Wellington Street (corner Hill Street), Perth, WA

2885 Gold Coast Highway, Surfers Paradise, Queensland.

More listings to follow

Caltex announced last month that it planned to divest of about 50 properties which would be worth more to the market as development sites than investments.

A second round of properties would be hitting the market soon.

Its chief development officer, David Bridger, said the β€œstrategic release” of the first tranche was aimed at the apartment and mixed use market.

“These sites are ideal for low to medium rise apartment development, located in attractive, high demand areas with strong growth opportunities,” Mr Bridger said.

Caltex offloaded 940 Stud Road, Rowville, with a leaseback – as we reported, last November.

“They also possess long-term development prospects which will appeal to a large number of prospective buyers who are looking at delivering a range of different end products into the inner metro markets”.

Last November, we reported that Caltex banked $7.8 million selling two metropolitan Melbourne service station investments: in Avondale Heights (pictured, above) and Rowville.

Late last year, local developers Time and Place and Golden Age Group won approval to build an $85 million business park on a 16.7 hectare Williamstown North site it acquired from Caltex a few years ago.

Time and Place and Golden Age Group recently won approval to replace a 16.7 hectare ex-Caltex site in Melbourne’s Williamstown North (outlined) with a business park it is marketing as Williams Point.

Listing comes as there’s a burst in demand from overseas developers

The Caltex portfolio listing come as commercial agents report a rise in international developer and investor interest this year, recently, from Hong Kong.

A recent CBRE Research analysis put this number at 30 per cent – the spend about $1.135 billion for the 2018/2019 year, compared to $880 million in 2017/2018.

In Melbourne alone, the agency said, nearly 80 per cent of investment sales since June 1, 2019, involve Asia-based buyers.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.