Commercial and residential property news
AUSTRALIAN renters risk being kicked out of their homes, if their landlord owners default on home loans.
Tenants Union of Victoria spokesman Toby Archer described renters as “the forgotten victims” of rising incidences of mortgage stress, and rising interest rates.
Mr Archer is appealing for the ALP State government to extend its notice time for tenants to vacate from 28 days, to 90.
Read moreUP to 20,000 people will call the Cranbourne area home, after planning Minister Justin Madden paved the way for new
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VICTORIAN Planning Minister Justin Madden has paved the way for one of the state’s biggest public housing-based estates to be developed in Melbourne’s south-east.
The $140 million Ashwood Chadstone Gateway project affects six major development sites in Ashwood and Chadstone, near the Chadstone Shopping Centre.
With ministerial approval given on Thursday, the public housing project is expected to start construction in July.
Commission flat towers will rise between four and seven levels at sites around Warrigal Road, the Holmesglen and Jordanville train stations, and around the Ashwood Reserve and Harlequin Rugby Club.
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ANOTHER Kew motel with redevelopment potential has hit the market.
The Pathfinder Motel at the south-west corner of Cotham and Burke roads is expected to sell for about $6 million as a development site.
The 24-room hotel, on a 1760 square metre block, is said to be attracting interest from builders who may propose a medium or high density apartment redevelopment – as has been developed on sites next door.
Read moreA WEEK after agreeing to sell a 50 per cent stake in its $800 million wholesale funds management business to Clarence Property Corp, the Queensland-based Trinity Funds Management Limited is offloading some Melbourne assets.
In the biggest deal, a Mulgrave asset co-owned by two Trinity trusts has sold for $23 million. The property included three office buildings, 11 industrial office warehouse units and was spread over almost 5 hectares.
CB Richard Ellis director Andrew Stewart negotiated that sale.
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BUSINESSMAN and hotelier Robert Zagame, of the Zagame Group, is believed to have paid about $1.725 million for a Prahran development site.
The 295 square metre property at 223 High Street, was sold with a permit for an $8 million, five-level, seven-unit apartment complex, with a ground floor showroom.
However it’s speculated Mr Zagame will revise that application to include around 20 one-bedroom units or studios.
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THE BIBLE College of Victoria has amassed $8.525 million from the sale of the Lilydale site it has used as its main campus for more than 30 years.
The college split its prominent college into three, before listing it for sale earlier this year.
In the biggest sale, Mount Waverley based property services business Three Pillars paid $5.9 million for a 4.1 hectare main campus site. It plans to refurbish existing buildings into residential accommodation – most likely a mix of apartments, units and townhouses.
Read moreIAN Lemon, the prominent South Melbourne real estate agent who saw Southbank and Docklands develop from dank industrial hubs, into
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A BULKY goods centre with redevelopment potential in Bomber-land has sold for $11.45 million.
Hudson Pacific Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hudson Investment Group, has offloaded the 15,309 square metre 299 Pascoe Vale Road site, which includes four bulky goods showrooms returning almost $940,000 per annum in rent.
The site abuts rail tracks between the Glenbervie and Strathmore train stations, on the Broadmeadows line.
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MIRVAC is believed to have made about $13 million from the sale of a 4.4 hectare Port Melbourne development site, once owned by General Motors Holden.
The Sydney-based developer this week exchanged contracts to sell the cleared block of land, to a private investment company.
Mirvac’s Victorian development manager Christian Graham confirmed the sale but declined to comment on the details including buyer or price.
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MIRVAC is believed to have made about $13 million from the sale of a 4.4 hectare Port Melbourne development site, once owned by General Motors Holden.
The Sydney-based developer this week exchanged contracts to sell the cleared block of land, to a private investment company.
Mirvac’s Victorian development manager Christian Graham confirmed the sale but declined to comment on the details including buyer or price.
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RICHMOND’s former Fields Knitting Mills factory, in Lord Street, Melbourne, is set to be redeveloped into a $60 million, six-level apartment complex.
Developer W Property Group said 85 per cent of the 88 units available in the Cirque complex have sold – enough to satisfy the bank’s tight funding requirements, and get construction started by July.
Oliver Hume Real Estate marketing agent Cameron Clarke said the oversized apartment shells were a contributing factor to Cirque’s success.
Read moreA SITE at one of the busiest intersections of the north-eastern suburbs, looks set to be redeveloped at last.
Seven years since closing as a service station, a cleared site on the corner of Manningham and Thompsons roads, in Bulleen, has sold to a local developer for $1.85 million.
The 2180 square metre block was marketed with a permit for a four-level, 31 unit apartment complex with a two level basement car park.
Read moreAUSTEXX – the owner of the $1.5 billion DFO retail chain – has offloaded an office building in Melbourne’s frantic South Wharf precinct.
German fund Deka Immobilien Investment is reported to be paying about $115 million for the 12-level office, home to Kraft, Baulderstone and shipping giant ANL.
The office was for sale at the peak of the property boom in 2007, but was withdrawn once the economic downturn took hold, while construction continued and the space was leased.
Read moreNEW South Wales Goulburn Airport has been listed for sale.
The 63-hectare site is being offloaded by the Goulburn Mulwaree Council, and continues a trend of publicly owned land being offloaded this year.
Colliers International is marketing the property which is available for sale or lease.
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Residents in Australand’s high-end Freshwater Place might have their million dollar views blocked, with developer Tony Schiavello picking up the
Read moreREVELLERS at Docklands Neverland – one of the southern hemisphere’s biggest drinking barns – may soon be sharing dawn with construction workers.
A prominent 9,775 square metre development site next door to the 1500- capacity club has been listed for sale and is expected to sell for about $6 million.
Zoned Industrial 1, the site is expected to arouse interest from owner occupiers through to developers, who may exploit the sites position within walking distance to the CBD, with a high tech industrial business park.
Read moreRESIDENTS of the north-eastern suburb of Doreen are ready to mount Supreme Court action against developer Delfin Lend Lease.
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THE inner-city’s next major hotel looks likely to be developed at a West Melbourne site near the suburb border of the CBD, and Docklands.
Businessman and philanthropist Les Erdi is believed to have paid about $8 million for a 1526 square metre development site at 33 – 43 Batman Street.
The site currently includes a single-level factory known as the WD O’Donnell building, and was put to the market in March with a permit for a 14-level, 136 unit complex.
Read moreA HOUSE described by Melbourne University professor of architecture Philip Goad as one of the most important postwar residential buildings in the country, can now be yours – for a short time, anyway.
Read moreVISION Australia has reaped $2.4 million from the sale of a major residential development site at the suburb border of Essendon, Moonee Ponds and Brunswick West.
The 1643 square metre property, at the north-east corner of Albion and Lawson streets, sold to a local private investor, who is expected to develop a medium density residential project.
An existing building, built in 1987 and renovated in 1995 will be demolished. Vision Australia occupied this site until two months ago.
Read moreA SEVEN-bedroom, eight-bathroom Toorak mansion has fetched about $15 million.
Read moreEAST Melbourne offices once owned and occupied by rock promoter Paul Dainty have hit the market for lease.
A historic building at 14 – 18 Morrison Place, near the St Patrick’s Cathedral, is asking $100,000 per annum.
While occupied by Dainty, from the 1990s to about mid 2005, some of the world’s greatest acts including the Rolling Stones, were reported to have passed through the building.
Read moreIf walls could talk then this home at 28 Princess Street in Seddon would have plenty to say. It is etched in western suburbs history, formerly the family home of carpenter T. A. Duckworth founder Richard Duckworth.
Read moreA HEALTH based fund controlled by Sydney-based manager Ironbridge has been revealed as the buyer of Hawthorn’s prominent 50 Burwood Road office, abutting the Hawthorn train station.
Healthbridge Property Hawthorn Pty Ltd paid a speculated $17.1 million for the four-level, 5247 square metre office, formerly owned by VECCHI.
Ragg Weir Accounting, a tenant in the building, offered a relocation incentive to surrender their lease prior to Healthbridge settling on the property, has now leased an 1100 square metre office at LAS Investments 108 Power Street office, near the corner of Burwood Road.
Read moreA property many said may never be sold is expected to sell for more than $3.25 million at auction today.
Read moreAN upmarket Indian restaurant has leased a prominent Docklands retail space which has sat vacant for two years.
Shiraaz will replace the restaurant known as the Quay Bar and Brasserie, leasing 744 square metres of indoor and outdoor space at the ground level of 12 – 16 New Quay Promenade, a gateway building, within MAB Corporation’s New Quay precinct.
The building is prominent to anybody walking into New Quay from the CBD via Harbour Esplanade, and is at the eastern most edge of MAB Corp’s prominent piece of the $15 billion Docklands development.
Read moreRichard and Alison Bouris, former owners of electrical retailer JB Hi-FI, have listed their contemporary Brighton home at 86 The
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Adam Garrison, who was until recently a joint venture owner of Spring Street’s Windsor Hotel, has purchased the Dandenong Ranges’
Read moreVictorian general events manager Brendan McClements is moving from Kew. The executive’s renovated Edwardian at 55 Disraeli Street should sell
Read moreGILPIP Bayside Projects, which in 2008 paid the Catholic Church $10 million for its outgoing St Macartans Primary School, is readying to redevelop the site into a $40 million housing estate.
Gilpip is planning to replace the two-hectare former Tanti Avenue school, with a medium density residential project including 21 apartments and five townhouses, some which will offer water views.
A 15-lot subdivision, with block sizes ranging from 415 square metres to 623 square metres has also been put to the market, as part of the Macartans Place redevelopment, which Gilpip is marketing via an on-site sales suite.
Read moreActors Rachel Beck and Ian Stenlake are selling an apartment in a St Kilda block reportedly once also home to
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DESPITE evidence government grants unnecessarily inflate up real estate values, the Victorian State Government is using them again, as a carrot leading to the November 13 election.
Below is a statement about the initiative, by the HIA, which includes exact values about the new grants available.
Read moreFormer architect and managing director of Australian Bridal Services, Glen Findlay, and his partner, public relations executive, Vanessa Barcellona, are
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HIA statement:
The Housing Industry Association is disappointed to see a new $95,000 per hectare tax on developments in Melbourne’s fringe, which will ultimately drive up the cost of housing.
Despite HIA, Australia’s largest building industry group, continually voicing its opposition to the proposed tax, and the Bill previously being defeated in the Parliament, the contentious Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) is now set to go ahead.
Read morePaintings conservator Jacqueline Macnaughtan is selling her "sea captain’s cottage" and sailing out of South Melbourne.
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A prominent 2.5 hectare site at the suburb border of Armadale and Toorak, in Melbourne’s ritzy south-east, is set to be redeveloped.
The joint venture partners of the project have unveiled plans for a major project including apartment buildings rising as high as 16 levels.
The development would be just short of commission flats in nearby Prahran, which soer just over 20 levels.
Related story: Lend Lease, Frank Hargrave, to Develop Major Residential Village on SKM Site, Overlooking Toorak Park
Vivas Lend Lease, as representative for the JV consortium, issued this press release last week for the project, at 590 Orrong Road, near Toorak train station and overlooking Toorak Park and Orrong Romanis Park:
Former Willis Management Consultants managing director Bob Willis and his wife Mary are selling Mornington Peninsula’s Cherryvale. The Tuscan inspired
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SOUTH Australia’s Motor Accident Commission has reaped a speculated $28.4 million from the sale of a Collins Street office building it has owned for almost twelve years.
Based on the building’s annual rental income of $2.1 million, the 38-year old, 17-level building at 356 Collins Street sold on a yield of 7.5 per cent, a tightening of about 1 per cent on the average yields this time last year, reflecting a strengthening in the CBD office sector.
The 7211 square metre building is considered to be in Collins Street’s best pocket, a block from the Flinders Street Station, Bourke Street Mall and Swanston Street.
Read moreLife members of Victoria’s Art Deco Society, Helen Graham and Cliff Skinner, are moving from the renovated Elwood penthouse they have enjoyed for almost 14 years.
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HAVING paid La Trobe University about $15 million for La Trobe Street’s distinctive Argus building in March, the owner of education enterprise Melbourne Institute of Technology, Shesh Ghale, is reweighting his property portfolio.
Mr Ghale has listed for sale a B-grade office tower once known as the Euro Asia building, at 388 Lonsdale Street, on the north-east corner of Hardware Street, and near the Hardware Lane cafe precinct.
Mr Ghale is reported to have paid $12.1 million for the office in May 2004, eventually filling the 13-level, 6618 square metre building for his education business.
Read moreAustralia’s House of the Year in 1922 – 114 Caroline Street, South Yarra – is for sale asking more than
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ANOTHER prominent Northcote commercial property is set to be redeveloped, most likely into a mixed use village with shops and apartment towers.
After 121 years, the building occupied by leather manufacturer Joshua Pitt will be sold, after being rezoned Residential 1.
Manufacturing at the building ceased in 2004.
All up, the 52 – 79 Gadd Street site covers 13,450 square metres over two streets, and has a total street frontage of about 380 metres.
Read moreLily, the renovated and extended Edwardian home of glass artist Liza Bush, will go to auction next month.
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DOCKLANDS unluckiest office building has been quietly listed for sale.
The 717 Bourke Street office – and soon-to-be home of Channel Nine – is expected to sell for between $280 million and $300 million, reflecting a yield of about 8 per cent.
Last November, education service provider, and a reported minority owner of the building, Global Campus Management, went into voluntary administration, surrendering a 17,000 square metre lease over almost half of the building. That space was to have been occupied by French fashion school ESMOD.
Read moreV8 Supercar legend Todd Kelly and his wife Kristy are selling their waterfront home in Patterson Lakes.
Read moreA SURGE in the number of skilled migrants setting up house in Melbourne is contributing to the city’s rental crisis, according to new research from Oliver Hume.
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STOCKMARKET whiz kid Nicholas Bolton – who made $4.5 million last year from his investment in embattled BrisConnections – is selling an investment property at 2 Queen Street, on the corner of Flinders Street.
Mr Bolton says the 550 square metre strata titled office, on the second floor of the Q2 building, is surplus to his needs.
Sources say he can expect to make around $2.5 million for the office which he used to occupy, but which will be sold with vacant possession.
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KEEPING it in the AFL family, a company chaired by former Melbourne Football Club president Paul Gardner has leased offices at a Richmond project being developed by the current president of the Geelong Football Club, Frank Costa.
Financial services group Grey Australia New Zealand, of which Mr Gardner is an executive, will lease 940 square metres, being the entire second level, at Mr Costa’s 4 – 12 Amsterdam Street development, at the Cremorne end of the trendy inner-city suburb.
Market rents at the new three-storey building are between $300 and $320 per square metre, per annum.
Read moreCollingwood captain Nathan Buckley and president, also Channel Nine chief executive, Eddie McGuire, now share more than their love of
Read moreFIVE time British Open champ, and Australian golfing legend Peter Thomson will practice his swing on the first fairway, of an 18-hole golf course he is overseeing the construction of, in Beveridge, north of Melbourne.
The Thompson Perrett designed course is a major part of the Mandalay at Beveridge housing estate, about 45 kilometres from the CBD, between Craigieburn and Wallan.
Mr Thomson is designing the course with landscape architect Ross Perrett.
Read morePokie king Bruce Mathieson has withdrawn his Brighton mansion from the market. The five-bedroom property in Sandown Street on Brighton’s Golden Mile was mysteriously whisked off industry websites last month, sparking speculation that the house – on the market for more than $9 million 12 months ago and later reduced to $7.5 million – had actually been sold.
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EVOLVE Development, the burgeoning Melbourne-based builder spearheaded by ex-Fairfax chairman Ron Walker, and business partner Ashley Williams, will develop its largest project to date in South Melbourne.
The developer is believed to have paid Westpac Funds Management about $15 million for the 35 – 47 Coventry Street development site once occupied by Channel Seven as its head office.
Westpac acquired the asset after builder St Hilliers, which bought the site from Seven in 2003, drafted a residential conversion plan for the disused office, but never proceeded with building it.
Read moreRE-CREATION Health Clubs has leased more than 2200 square metres of office showroom space at the corner of Tooronga Road and Malvern Road in Glen Iris.
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ONE plus of the contentious Melbourne @ 5 Million planning policy is that new high rise apartment towers have the potential to dwarf, or hide, eyesore commission flats which are all too prominent around town.
Now an area of Melbourne where high rise public housing towers are particularly prevalent – around the parts of the Citylink motorway known as “The Zipper” and “The Tube” in Ascot Vale – is set to be joined by a new, more stylish neighbour.
Developer Bensons Property Group has started marketing the last stage of its Travancore on the Park project, a $395 million village being developed on the former Lombard Paper factory site in Mount Alexander Road, which was destroyed by fire in late 2004.
Read moreINVESTA Property Group is continuing its push into Melbourne’s inner-eastern suburban office market, with plans for a 10,000 sq m commercial building on an Abbotsford site it owns on the banks of the Yarra River.
Read moreCRANES, scaffolding and trucks are about to become familiar sights around the Queen Victoria Market, when the developer who purchased a slice of the former City Mazda dealership nearby, starts construction of a major new apartment-based village.
Melbourne-based builder Mider will start building the first of two apartment towers within its Infinity 8 project in Franklin Street, next month.
A second and much taller tower called Infinity 88, rising 19 levels and including 168 units, is being marketed at the moment and is expected to also rise from the ground this year. In three weeks, 103 apartments in Infinity 88 have sold.
Read moreDEVELOPER Burbank Homes has lodged an application to redevelop the Denton Hat Mill factory, in Abbotsford. Sources say the 113-year-old heritage-protected factory will be converted into 20 townhouses, 38 apartments and nine retail shops.
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A STANDALONE double fronted terrace, in a Footscray street almost entirely occupied by industrial and commercial users, is set to
Read moreMERCHANT banking heavyweight Keith Tuffley is laughing all the way to the bank, after his five-bedroom mansion in Barry Street, Kew, sold after auction for $5.8 million.
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TWO major development sites around the Shrine of Remembrance have sold, in deals expected to see low rise office buildings replaced with skyscraper apartment towers, with a potential end value of around $250 million.
In the biggest deal, an Asia-based developer is believed to have paid about $15.5 million for a 2274 square metre site at 35 Albert Road.
A 3096 square metre office building at the address is expected to be replaced with an apartment tower, which some speculate could soar higher than 30 levels and have an end value of about $130 million.
Meanwhile across the road, boutique developer Hamton has made one of its biggest forays into the high-density residential sector.
Read moreBUSINESS identity Colin Cookes is believed to be the mystery buyer of a $6.8 million apartment in the Royal Domain Towers, on St Kilda Road.
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Another historic regional Victorian pub is for sale. The former Shepparton Hotel, which was part destroyed by fire in late
Read moreFUNNY girl Gina Riley and television producer husband Rick McKenna are selling their house in Armadale, less than 12 months after moving in.
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Woolworths, which buys, sells, develops and holds real estate, said it is “ready and raring to go” with plans to
Read morePRIVATE investor demand for suburban shops continues to surge, with three shops selling at auction for far higher than their reserves.
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THE inner-city’s next retail strip is slowly taking shape in Docklands.
Equiset, the development company owned and managed by the Grollo family, has filled about 1800 square metres, or six stores, at the ground level of Village Street, a thoroughfare connecting Bourke and Collins streets.
The western side of Village Street includes the 12-level A-grade office building that is now home to National Foods. The eastern side of the street, is the Goods Shed building, which is currently being refitted into boutique office space.
Read moreTHE federal Liberal Party has taken a 12-month lease for about 1650 sq m of office space at 120 Collins Street. The space became available earlier this year after Citibank reorganised its office occupation, shrinking its occupancy in the premium-grade building from four levels to three.
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A DISTINCTIVE Tudor style complex in Toorak Road, South Yarra, with five ground floor shops and an upstairs office, has sold for $6.7 million.
Based on the assets annual rent of $296,021, the 638 square metre building sold on a low yield of 4.4 per cent.
Knight Frank’s Marcus Quinn and Paul Henley sold the asset at 307 – 315 Toorak Road.
Mr Quinn said the property offers the new owner plenty of value-adding potential, covering just 50 per cent of the 1000 square metre land area.
Read moreDEVELOPER preparedness to construct property without a tenant pre-commitment is spilling into the retail sector, with middleweight developer Omni Property Group this week announcing plans to speculatively develop a bulky goods showroom and gymnasium in Carnegie.
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THE State Government is continuing to offload prime located development sites around freeway edges and wedges.
The latest listing, by the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, is at 12 – 62 Cook Street, Port Melbourne, abutting the West Gate Freeway, on the city-side between Todd Road and Salmon Street.
The 3.1 hectare site is perhaps most recognized as being the VicRoads Westgate Training and Conference Centre.
Read moreMELBOURNE-BASED serviced-office provider Corporate Executive Offices will open its first international office in Manila in August.
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HIGH density development is making its way to Melbourne’s outer western suburbs.
The developer of the $440 million Wyndham Harbour project in Werribee South has released the project’s first apartments to the market, two months after releasing its first staged land subdivision, which has sold out.
Long term wet berths of between 10 and 30 metres have also been released for sale at the development, about 30 kilometres west of town.
Read moreBOUTIQUE property developer Piccolo Developments has paid about $6.3 million for the former Skin & Cancer Foundation’s office building in Carlton.
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SOME Camberwell residents are not practicing what they preach.
Research by developer FKP, shows 90 per cent of sales at a controversial apartment project being developed at the Camberwell Junction, have been to residents within a five kilometre radius of the site.
FKP would not disclose how many of the 144 available apartments it has sold at its Aerial project, but confirmed it was enough to get construction out of the ground.
Read moreMELBOURNE will host the country’s inaugural home show dedicated to first-home buyers.
Read moreBAYSIDE developer BPM has outmuscled international and local buyers for a supersized Brighton property, about 100 metres from the waterfront.
Read moreVICTORIAN cricketer Jon Moss has put his Elwood apartment on the market after moving locally.
Read moreBOUTIQUE builder Glenneagles Homes Pty Ltd has completed construction of its latest project at 331 Glenferrie Road in Malvern. Two
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Developer Caydon Property has agreed to pay Vision Australia $21 million for a Prahran site with a permit for a major apartment complex.
Vision Australia had agreed to sell the property, and another development site behind it about two years ago, however that deal did not proceed.
The front piece of land, which has just sold, is expected to be developed into a 330 unit apartment complex with ten ground floor shops, according to CBRE’s Mark Wizel and Andrew Dawkins, who marketed the site.
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