Commercial and residential property news
APPROVAL has been granted to develop a $3.8 million mansion on Australia’s richest street, Wolseley Road, Point Piper.
After initially being rejected by the Woollahra Council, the four-storey mansion was approved after council sought legal advice.
The $20 million property’s owner, Indonesian born Julina Lum, had planned to take the redevelopment proposal to the Land and Environmental Court.
Read moreTWO retail assets in Campasie, Sydney, have sold to Asian investors.
In the biggest deal a property at 266 – 272 Beamish Street sold after auction for $3.69 million reflecting a yield of 3.9 per cent.
It included four ground floor shops, two office units and a residential component and had an internal building area of 826 square metres.
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DEVELOPMENT and investment giant Goodman Group has snared Metcash as a major industrial tenant.
Metcash will lease a new $129 million facility in Goodman’s Bungarribee Industrial Estate in Blacktown, in Sydney’s west.
Metcash will consolidate from five Sydney locations to occupy the new 82,015 Blacktown facility.
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MOSMAN, in Sydney, ranked as the suburb to record the highest dollar value of sales in the year to July 2010 – almost $851 million.
Research group RP Data has published a survey ranking the country’s top performing suburbs.
Using the total value of property sold for the year, the suburb of Brighton ranked highest for Victoria.
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ACCORDING to the latest Shopping Centre News survey 2010, the Northbridge Plaza on Sydney’s north shore is the country’s best performer based on turnover per square metre.
The second best performing centre was also in Sydney – the Queen Victoria Building (QVB, pictured).
The Mini Guns survey samples more than 140 centres ranging from 6000 square metres to 20,000 square metres.
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SIX developers have been selected out of 17 applications to redevelop the first stage of Sydney’s Barangaroo.
The developers are: Baulderstone; Bovis Lend Lease; Hansen Yuncken; John Holland; Laing O’Rourke Australia and Theiss.
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MELBOURNE-based builder Grocon will sell its Sydney headquarters, and an adjoining building that accommodates drinking institution the Belgian Beer Cafe.
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TWO major homemaker centres in east coast Australia have sold for a combined $87.5 million.
Colonial First State sold the Homeworks Caringbah complex in Sydney’s south for $49 million. The 14 year old complex on a 2.055 hectare site is anchored by Harvey Norman and a Nick Scali furniture, and is 98 per cent occupied.
In Queensland, Mirvac sold the Morayfield Supa Centre for $38.5 million. The single level complex about 40 kilometres north of Brisbane is anchored by a Spotlight and Fantastic Furniture.
Read moreAN UNDISCLOSED developer has paid $5.57 million for a 13,023 square metre development site on the northern side of Kissing
Read moreDELOITTE, the liquidator for failed New Zealand Group Bridgestone, has recovered $24 million from the sale of the Courtyard by
Read moreDEXUS Wholesale Property Fund has paid $23.5 million for a major warehouse in Sydney’s Ingleburn. The 25,807 square metre Williamsons
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EXECUTIVES met at a big pile of dirt in the Sydney CBD, to mark the site which will become that city’s next major skyscraper.
Grocon plans to build an $800 million, 43-level, 54,000 square metre building at the site – which it was announced would have two addresses: 161 Castlereagh Street, and 242 Pitt Street.
Law firm Freehills will access the Castlereagh Street entrance, while bank ANZ will occupy Pitt Street.
The building will be owned by GPT’s Wholesale Office Fund, Grocon and LaSalle Asia Opportunity Fund III, upon completion.
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WESTFIELD’s landmark $1.2 million Sydney City shopping centre has secured retailers Gap, Mulberry and DKNY Jeans as tenants. The massive
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The New South Wales government has approved an $89 million redevelopment of Bondi Beach’s former Hakoah Club site, on Hall
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SYDNEY based developer and fund manager Stockland has sold the 333 Kent Street office building in Sydney for $41.5 million.
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ABACUS Property Group has reaped $78 million from the sale of 343 George Street, Sydney.
In an ASX announcement the Sydney-based group confirmed it will settle to sell the property in September.
Abacus paid Dexus $55 million for the building last July, before leasing up vacant office and ground floor retail space.
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COLONIAL First State is hoping to reap some $40 million from the sale of a North Sydney office building it
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German medical group B. Braun has paid $4 million for an 8000 square metre parcel at Sydney’s Norwest Business Park
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DEE Why’s Grand Shopping Centre in Sydney has sold to a private investor for $68 million.
The 10,000 square metre centre, with 30 specialty stores on Sydney’s northern beaches, was offloaded by grocery wholesaler John David and hotel owner the Bayfield family.
Institutions including Charter Hall, Colonial First State, the Future Fund and Lend Lease reportedly threw their hat in the ring for the centre, which sold on a yield of between 7.5 and 8 per cent, based on a fully let income.
Read moreENOUGH land for more than 15,000 homes has been rezoned in Sydney’s north-west – but bureaucracy might mean it’s a while before construction begins.
The New South Wales government are pushing to see development in the Riverstone and Alex Avenue precincts, two of 16 areas targeted in the state’s North West Growth Centre Plan.
It’s expected 45,000 additional people will call the area home. Six schools and recreation facilities will also be developed.
The Opposition planning spokesman Brad Hazzard told the AFR the “fragmented ownership of land in the precincts meant that it would be nigh on impossible to get a cohesive development plan and the necessary infrastructure to support housing”.
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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.
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PLANS to develop a $291 million office, retail and hotel development in central North Sydney, have been given the green tick by the New South Wales government.
Planning Minister Tony Kelly approved the controversial project after the height was reduced.
The site, on the corner of Walker and Berry streets, will see a 32-level commercial tower rise at 77 – 81 Berry Street, and a 33-level, 200-room hotel, open at 88 Walker Street.
The developer Eastmark Holdings, headed by Jin Yong Park, had originally planned to develop a 37-level office.
Read moreAMP 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.
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FKP Property Group has purchased Sydney’s eye hospital site in the inner-city suburb of Woolloomooloo, for an as yet undisclosed amount.
FKP executive general manager Evian Delfabro confirmed the purchase of the site from the Tieck family which paid $15 million in 2002.
The 1986 square metre site on Sir John Young Crescent was reported to have been worth about $25.5 million in 2008.
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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.
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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.
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NEW South Wales historic Tubbo Station estate in the Riverina region has sold for more than $40 million.
A nearby farmer, Les Douglas, is reported to have purchased the 28,000 hectare mixed use farming site near Darlington Point, offloaded by businessman Rodney Price.
Mr Douglas is seeking $15 million for another property he is selling, Kearbury.
Read moreMIRVAC has made $29.5 million from the sale of the Chester Square Shopping Centre in Sydney’s west.
The 8229 square metre centre includes a Go Lo variety store and 28 specialty shops.
Mirvac acquired the centre when it took over its listed satellite Mirvac Real Estate Investment Trust in 2009.
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FORMER Miss Universe, turned television presenter and Myer “face”, Jennifer Hawkins, is in the market for a new home around
Read moreAN office complex abutting Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport, in Mascot, is expected to sell for about $170 million. The site
Read moreGPT Group has sold its Bankstown Homemaker Centre for $25.2 million, on a high yield of just over 10 per
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PRICEWATERHOUSECoopers – which recently went against the grain by leasing an office building just out of the Melbourne CBD as its headquarters – may be looking to do the same in Sydney.
The professional services group is reportedly considering leasing an office building at the Barangaroo project.
Lend Lease will develop the $6 billion project, which is expected to have about 350,000 square metres of offices, with towers permitted to rise as high as 213 metres.
Read moreSYDNEY’s 179 Elizabeth Street office building is reportedly close to sale for a price speculated to be about $95 million.
Echo Capital Partners, run by former Valad co-founder Stephen Day, is “in talks” to buy the building on a yield of about 7.5 per cent, according to the AFR.
GPT is selling 179 Elizabeth Street, in a deal expected to arm with it funds to buy a half share in the $800 million 163 Castlereagh Street.
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THE New South Wales Government has abandoned plans for its $5.3 billion Metro rail project in favour of a $50.2 billion transport blueprint which will include a $4.5 billion express rail service to Western Sydney, and a $6.7 billion North West rail link from Epping to Rouse Hill.
The government will retain about $120 million worth of Sydney CBD property it has already acquired “so the sites are protected for a future metro.”
This should pacify some vendors who have sold properties, or shaped their leasing decisions, thinking they’d be surrounded by a construction zone.
Read moreINDUSTRY Superannuation Property Trust has sold a Sydney CBD office building to private group, City Freeholds, for $106.1 million.
The 55 Hunter Street building sold on a yield of about 7.5 per cent.
The sale is the latest healthy office transaction in the Sydney CBD. Last month Investa Property Group paid more than $95 million for a half share in 60 Martin Place, while overseas investors are paying $685 million for the luxury Aurora Place.
Read moreALMOST 50,000 people are on waiting lists for public housing in New South Wales, making it the worst performing state in Australia.
According to a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, NSW also recorded the highest rate of “over-crowding and under utilisation” in the country.
It said some households have had to wait more than two years for a home.
Read moreAN OFFICE in Sydney’s western corridor has sold to global asset management subsidiary Aviva Investors.
The 80 Clarence Street building has sold for $29.5 million, up on the $25.3 million vendor Oakland Property paid for the building in 2006.
The 12-level office sold on an 8 per cent yield.
Read moreCENTURY Funds Management is reportedly close to settling on a $30 million+ deal for North Sydney’s 107 Mount Street building,
Read moreTHE BALMAIN Leagues Club, in Sydney, will close for up to five years so developers can build a $200 million club, apartments, a public plaza and new station.
Former rugby player Benny Elias is involved in the development, which will start in late March after the club closes.
A metro station will be developed under Victoria Road, near the club – and the clubs existing site will be used as a construction zone.
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THE SYDNEY University of Technology has approved a $427 million redevelopment of its inner-city campus, which will see the addition
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THE $2 billion redevelopment of Broadway’s former Carlton & United Brewery site, in Sydney, will begin “immediately”.
The NSW Planning Department approved the project, Central Park, which spreads 5.8 hectares and will include apartments, commercial and a retail precinct.
Frasers Property Australia, headed by Singapore property developer Stanley Quek, paid $208 million for the site in July 2007, spending the subsequent 18 months getting concept plans approved.
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TWO major corporates have signed major new leases in Sydney, signalling a shift in sentiment to the CBD office market.
Investment bank JP Morgan will be the anchor tenant for a new building at 85 Castlereagh Street, due for completion in 2012. JP Morgan will take 16,700 square metres of the new tower, to be developed by Westfield over its its Sydney City development.
Investment manager State Street ha also committed to new offices, agreeing to a 10-year lease at Fortius Fund Management’s $400 million George Street building, due for completion in September. Lend Lease managed Australian Prime Property Fund is also developing that building.
THE NSW Supreme Court has paved the way for developer Bob Ell’s Leda Holdings to develop houses, on an 800
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SYDNEY Metro, the government arm which will commandeer the construction of the city’s new metro rail system, has paid $120 million for offices in the city centre.
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally said Sydney Metro had now stopped buying sites, until the government makes its final decision about the project “shortly” – but a further $180 million on property acquisitions is put away to be spent, to fund the project, the AFR reports.
Sydney Metro confirmed it has purchased 30 and 36 Clarence Street and 131 Bathurst Street, in the Sydney CBD, and two smaller offices in Rozelle, in the city’s inner west.
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AUSTRALIA’s most populated state will make way for the biggest chunk of public housing, promised by the Federal Government as part of the recent stimulus package.
At least 48 projects across New South Wales have been identified, as the first projects in part of a $2.9 billion public housing building boom for the State.
Developments are set to be developed around Sydney, Lake Macquarie, Ulladulla and Far South Coast.
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THE Southern Highlands house with a connection to Mary MacKillop has come onto the market for more than $1.25 million, or some $400,000 more than the price it sold for, 18 months ago.
Kalaurgan House, lived in by the nun tipped to be Australia’s first saint, measures 3,771 square metres and includes a home with four bedrooms, five fireplaces, a library and established garden.
According to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the listing, the Moss Vale property was established by the local arm of the Sisters of the Order of St Joseph’s school.
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Actor Simon Baker has paid $1.5 million for a farm at Nashua, about 25 kilometres south west of Byron Bay.
Read moreFIVE months since coming onto the market, Sydney’s landmark Aurora Place office building has sold for $658 million. In a
Read morePROPERTY investment schemes, invested into by NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal have reported huge losses, with some investment vehicles collapsing, and others falling to but a fraction of their former values.
The treasurer said he sought independent financial advice in relation to six investments, reported in The Australian.
“Unfortunately some of these investments didn’t turn out to be as successful as they could have been,” he told the paper.
Read moreVALAD Property Group has recorded a huge loss from the sale of a seven-level office building on Sydney’s North Shore.
The 39 – 41 Chandos Street office sold to fund manager Markham Corp for $19.05 million in September, after previously being valued this year at $20.9 million.
Valad paid just over $24 million for the office in late 2007.
Read moreA 20-person corporate box on the third floor of Sydney’s ANZ Stadium is for lease at $155,000 per annum. For
Read moreCOLONIAL First State last week opened a new 11,000 square metre, $185 million extension of its Chatswood Chase shopping centre in Sydney’s north.
The new 62,000 centre is now valued at about $700 million, and ranks among the top five shopping centres in the company’s portfolio, CFS fund manager Michael Gorman said.
The extension includes a new Coles, and upmarket retailers including Hardy Brothers jewellers, Saas & Bibe, Trenery (a Country Road offshoot) and Zimmerman.
Read moreAGED care service provider The Moran Group has paid $42 million for a facility at Little Bay, about 14 kilometres south-east of Sydney.
The purchase price includes $33.5 million attributed to a new 137-room centre, and $8.1 million for an adjoining block of land with redevelopment potential on Brodie Avenue.
Moran Group is developing another facility at Sylvania in Sydney.
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THE Premium Income Fund has reaped $38 million from the sale of a partially completed hotel and apartment complex south of Sydney.
Harbour Street Developments, controlled by Queensland developer George Callianiotis and Rockhampton retailer Solly Stanton, have reportedly agreed to purchase the City Beach development, south of Wollongong, which includes 168 hotel rooms, 75 apartments and 10 penthouses.
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Sydney’s Aurora Place office is reportedly close to sale for about $685 million. South Korea pension and equity firm Carlyle
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THE eldest son of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan, has paid $23 million for Le Manoir, in Sydney’s east
Read moreTHE People’s Republic of China is expected to take on New Zealand actor Russell Crowe, in bidding for a $15 million Sydney mansion, once used by the French government as a consulate.
The Victoria Road estate, Le Manoir, will be auctioned this evening at an invitation-only event in which prospective buyers have to make a refundable $50,000 deposit, just to make a bid.
Read moreSTOCKLAND is believed to be making about $40 million from the sale of its 234 Sussex Street office, in the
Read moreA SINGAPOREAN investor is believed to have paid about $75 million for an office at 20 Hunter Street in Sydney.
Read moreCHALLENGER Financial Services has made $85 million from the sale of its George Street Cinema complex in the Sydney CBD.
Private investors Coombes Property Group has purchased the 505 -523 George Street property, which includes a seven-storey cinema building, and sits on a 4,300 square metre block. The sale price is believed to translate to an approximate 8.25 per cent yield.
Read moreAN as yet undisclosed south-east Asian investor has paid $185 million for GPT’s unrenovated ‘Four Points by Sheraton’ hotel, in Sydney.
The hotel sold at a 10 per cent discount to its June 2009 valuation of $206 million. In December last year it was valued at $236 million.
Based on the asset’s current annual rent, the hotel sold on a yield of 8.8 per cent.
Read moreCostco is proposing a $55.4 million store and office at a site in Sydney’s western Auburn. Expected to open late
Read morePROPERTY giant Australand has offloaded the Crest Hotel, in Kings Cross, Sydney, for $72 million.
Property developer Michael Sanchez is reported to have purchased the 227-room hotel, with plans to convert the old building into luxury apartments.
Australand paid Coogee Bay Hotel owner Chris Cheung $63 million for the hotel two years ago. The hotel has been unused since June, when the Constellation Group vacated.
Read moreUNITED Kingdom based fashion label Topshop will open its first Sydney store next month.
The fashion shop will lease the second level of Incu’s 256 Oxford Street store, in Paddington.
To be known as Incu Presents Topshop, the retailer will stock the same range available throughout a 340-strong network in Britain.
Read moreGrant Thornton is seeking a development partner to complete a $170 million eco village at Foster, on the New South
Read moreTHE high profile owners of Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel are preparing to sell the asset for around $1 billion less than what it cost to build.
ABN Amro’s Diversified Infrastructure Trust, Leighton Holdings, Mirvac, REST and Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing are amongst the owners of the 3.6 kilometre tunnel, which is expected to sell for about $600 million.
The asset will generate an income until 2037.
Read moreSYDNEY’s Canterbury Hotel is believed to be close to sale for about $8.85 million, while the Lidcombe Hotel – also in the city’s west – is believed to be selling for about $6.6 million.
The hotels, being offered by the Hedley Gaming & Leisure Fund, are part of a $400 million portfolio of assets believed to be on the market.
A third Sydney pub, the Bridgeview Hotel in Willoughby, near the Channel Nine studio, is also believed to be close to sale, for about $7.5 million.
Read morePLANS for a $200 million resore in the NSW Central Coast town of Morisset, have been approved by the state planning department.
The Trinity Point Marina Resort will include 150 apartments, some of which will be hotel rooms, conference and function facilities, a 180 berth marina and 550 square metres of office space.
Construction of the resort is expected to start next year, or six years after the property was gazetted a tourist site.
Read moreHONG Kong-based CLSA Asia Pacific Markets is reported to be formalising the purchase of Sydney’s Australian Securities Exchange building, at 20 Bridge Street.
The speculated $140 million sale is expected to be finalised later this month, and would translate to a low 7 per cent yield if the building were fully occupied, which it is not.
CLSA is a brokerage and investment arm of French bank Credit Agricole, which focuses on the Asia region.
Read moreBelow is a statement from the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, regarding Sydney’s CBD environment metro plan:
The Sydney Chamber of Commerce said that the release of the environmental assessment plan for the CBD metro was the next step towards the beginning of a transport revolution for Sydney.
“Sydneysiders have rightly complained for years about the inadequacy of Sydney’s transport network, the CBD metro will be the first significant investment in many years to begin to deal with our transport congestion issues in this city,” said Patricia Forsythe, Executive Director of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce.
THE New South Wales Land and Environmental Court has made void a development permit for the state’s biggest housing development, saying its approval was affected by “a reasonable apprehension of bias” by former ALP planning minister Frank Sartor.
Justice David Henry Lloyd overturned the approval of almost 800 homes in southern Lake Macquarie, because the planning minister at the time, the Labor Party’s Frank Sartor – “might not have been impartial and unprejudiced in his decision” about the project.
Read moreNEW figures from the New South Wales Sheriff’s office show home repossessions in the state have fallen substantially since last year.
The office figures show between January and July 2009, home repossessions were 30 per cent lower than during the same period last year. In total 300 fewer homes were forcibly taken from their owners.
The one big difference to the economic backdrop, is interest rates which have successively and sharply fallen over the past twelve months to be at record lows.
Read moreSYDNEY’s landmark Aurora Place office building has been listed for sale and is expected to sell for about $700 million.
The 41-level tower, built in 2001 on a former State Office Block at 88 Phillip Street, is owned by the Commonwealth Property Investment Trust, a Colonial First State wholesale fund. The largest tenants in the premium quality, 49,730 square metre building include the Royal Bank of Scotland, which also leases naming rights, and Minter Ellison.
The building was sold to CPIT by developers Lend Lease and its partner East Asia Property Group for $485 million in February 2001.
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THE developers of the luxury Louisa Road apartment project in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Birchgrove, have shaved $1.35 million from the asking price of a unit that failed to sell during construction.
SJB Architects, which has developed the 36 Louisa Road building with Queensland-based Sunland Property Group, has two apartments left to sell in the six-unit project, which offers residents westerly views over Cockatoo Island (pictured) toward Drummoyne.
Read moreLend Lease has won a $250 million Building Education Revolution contract. Below is a published statement: Lend Lease Corporation Limited
Read morePLANS to develop Australia’s biggest environmentally friendly “glasshouse” near Nowra on the New South Wales south coast have stalled, because of the recent bleak economic environment.
The glasshouse was expected to be twice the size of the Geelong-based Costa Group’s tomato growing complex on the NSW Northern Tablelands.
It would use excess carbon dioxide and waste water from a Manildra Group-owned ethanol plant nearby, to enhance growth of its products.
Read moreThe former Coff’s Harbour Zoo has sold to a private Sydney family for $3.5 million.
The 125-hectare property includes 1.2 kilometres of beachfront reserve, and is spread over five titles.
Vendor Kazal Bros purchased the property for $2.4 million in late 2006.
Read moreSTARWOOD Hotels & Resorts is continuing to offload its major assets, this time putting Sydney’s five-star Sheraton on the Park hotel on the market.
Starwood will sell the asset a long-term management agreement for the 557-room Elizabeth Street hotel, which overlooks Hyde Park.
The group has put a number of its hotel investments globally on the market, but Starwood says it is not compelled to sell if pricing and other requirements are not met.
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PLANS to build a $100 million cancer centre in Sydney’s ritzy inner-eastern suburb of Darlinghust are in jeopardy, after a group of local residents and Lord Mayor Clover Moore, said the development would “cannibalise” their suburb.
Mr Moore said the proposed 11-storey building – which was launched by singer Delta Goodrem last October – risks blocking sunlight to nearby homes, and will also cause traffic chaos.
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Rouse Hill Town Centre has taken top honour at the 2009 Property Council of Australia Rider Levett Bucknall Awards for
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