Commercial and residential property news
WESTERN Australian based developer and fund manager Brookfield Multiplex has paid $25.3 million for a commercial development site in the City Square development site.
Brookfield is expected to build a 14-level office on the site, which was also reportedly competed for by the Charter Hall Group.
Aspen Group also reportedly conducted due diligence on the site.
Read moreLOGISTICS giant Toll NQX has leased a 20,000 industrial property at billionaire property developer Lang Walker’s Vicinity Industrial Estate, in Adelaide.
Vicinity is near the mouth of Adelaide’s $560 million Northern Expressway (http://www.northernexpressway.sa.gov.au/).
Mr Walker told the AFR Toll’s lease vindicates his decision to focus on developing industrial estates on key transport routes and where the government is investing.
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Lend Lease Corporation Limited (“Lend Lease”) today announced that its UK public private partnerships (“PPP”) business, Catalyst Lend Lease has achieved financial close with Lancashire County Council on the £55 million (approximately A$110 million) Phase 3 and a £16 million (approximately A$32 million) academy as part of the East Lancashire Building Schools for the Future (“BSF”) programme in England.
Read moreLend Lease Corporation Limited (“Lend Lease”) today announced its subsidiary, Bovis Lend Lease Pty Limited (“Bovis Lend Lease”), as part
Read moreBundoora is located about 20 kilometres north of the CBD, and is bound by the suburbs of Thomastown to the west, Mill Park to the north, Watsonia to the east and MacLeod to the south.
Read moreMacquarie Direct Property Fund has revealed itself as the buyer of the former Zurich office building at 71 Queens Road.
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DAYS before the federal labor government’s carbon tax is set to take effect, several Victorian councils have discovered they have been added to the list of some 500 companies set to pay.
The councils of Hume, Geelong, Wyndham and Bendigo have been included on the mystery list of polluters set to pay the tax. Several other councils in Victoria and around Australia are expected to be added in coming days.
Voters and the business community have criticised the hush-hush method the Labor government has decided to announce the polluters which will pay the tax.
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SUPERANNUATION fund REST is believed to be close to selling a Sydney CBD office building to Dexus Property Goup for $60 million.
The 19-level, 10,896 square metre office at 50 Carrington Street (pictured, right) overlooks Wynyard Park and includes ground floor retail space.
Nine tenants lease the building which is about 25 per cent vacant. REST purchased the building from British Property Giant MEPC in 1998 as part of a portfolio.
HASSAD – the agricultural arm of the Qatari government – is in negotiations to buy five properties in western Victoria, in a deal reportedly worth $45 million.
The portfolio will bring the value of Australian assets purchased by the overseas group in the past twelve months to over $100 million.
Hassad is said to be considering purchasing another major property in NSW from one of the Victorian vendors.
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WALL Street heavyweight Blackstone Group, which recently announced an $806 million buyout of the debt laden Valad Property Group, has withdrawn a high-profile hotel from the market.
The 22-year old Sheraton Noosa Resort and Spa in the Sunshine Coast has frontage to the Hastings Street retail strip, and mooring facilities to the Noosa Valley. With 176 rooms and on almost 10,000 square metres of land, Valad listed the hotel for sale in March, with price expectations of about $70 million.
Valad paid $93.6 million for the resort in 2007. The value has dipped to about $85 million, according to the AFR which reported the resort being withdrawn from sale.
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A MAJOR residential development site in Yanchep, a precinct of Perth once known as a weekend getaway destination, has hit the market for the second time in three years.
The 10,000 square metre block, divided into four titles, were purchased by boutique Perth developer Match for $13.2 million at the peak of Perth’s real estate market in 2007.
Colliers International’s head of department project residential, land marketing and tourism, Nick DiLello said the site may achieve that price again, now the market has recovered somewhat from the downturn.
Read moreADELAIDE’s Chelsea Cinema will be sold.
Despite a public campaign to rescue the 85-cyear old cinema, Adelaide Now has reported the Burnside Council is seeking expressions of interest, which would see the 1810 square metre State Heritate listed cinema site sold.
An adjoining 725 square metre block at 39 May terrace is also available as part of the EOI campaign, set to close on February 26.
Read moreConsumers spent $19.35 billion on household goods, clothing, and at cafes and restaurants in April, according to ABS retail trade
Read moreMADONNA has reportedly spent between $US33 and $US40 million for a home in New York’s ritzy Upper East Side.
Read moreBulleen is an quiet suburb located north of Balwyn North, on the eastern banks of the Yarra River.
Read moreYarra Valley Farms has leased a 2800 square metre office building and warehouse in the inner-western suburb of Yarraville.
Read moreFairfax can expect 20-$25 million from its high-tech printing and distribution facility at Westmeadows near Melbourne Airport. The media group
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CAR maker Audi has leased Mosman office space formerly occupied by furniture maker Jimmy Possum.
The prestige car maker will pay annual rent of $539,888 to occupy the ground level space at 339 Military Road (pictured, right).
The space is currently undergoing a refurbishment according to the AFR which reported the lease.
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BEHIND the scenes, Channel Nine has been busy lodging applications to effectively rebuild the quartet of neighbouring terraces that are the subject of heavily marketed TV show The Block, which airs from June 20.
Nine agreed to buy the four rundown single-storey homes at 37-43 Cameron Street for $3.6 million soon after they hit the market last year. Settlement occurred in February, at about the same time new planning applications were lodged (and subsequently approved) by the City of Yarra council.
Eleven months ago, the terraces were offered for sale with an adjoining 446 square metre parcel of land (addressed 31 – 35 Cameron Street) which Nine is currently using to store materials and machinery.
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STOCKLAND Capital Parters, which is responsible for the Stockland Direct Office Trust No 1 (SDOT1) has sold a 50 per cent stake in Brisbane’s Waterfront Place project for $216.4 million.
The Sydney-based developer will also sell 50 per cent of the entity owning the adjacent Eagle Street Pier project to the Melbourne based Future Fund for $16 million, on the basis o f a completed refurbishment.
Stockland will retain a 50 per cent interest in both projects according to an announcement made today (copied below).
The Waterfront place office rises 36 levels and fronts the Brisbane River. Eagle Street Pier is a low-rise 6,200 square metre shopping centre which is currently being refurbished. The sale price for this asset translates to 7 per cent. Sale price coming soon…
Read moreFREMANTLE Surf Lifesaving Club and Sydney-based developer Mirvac have signed a $4.1 million agreement to build a new facility on
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EXCLUSIVE figures released to The Advertiser last week, shows Adelaide’s metropolitan median rose 6.25 per cent to $382,500 in the December 2009 quarter, compared to the same period in 2008.
State wide, medians increased 5.77 per cent to $352,000.
Somerton Park, just south of Glenelg South, reported the strongest median value growth – up 35.64 per cent since last year. It was followed by Broadview (28.42 per cent) and Willastown (22.37 per cent).
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Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have reportedly paid $6 million for a penthouse in Mirvac’s Latitude development at Sydney’s Lower
Read moreTHE WIDOW of television producer Aaron Spelling is selling her Californian mansion, in a deal expected to be worth $US150 million – and set a new record price for the country.
Read moreBrunswick is about six kilometres north of Melbourne, connected to inner-city precincts below (Carlton North, Fitzroy North) and more traditional
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BILLIONAIRE businessman Lang Walker has decided against another fight with Kew residents, east of Melbourne.
Announcing the final stage of the $400 million Kew Cottages site redevelopment this month, his company, Walker Corporation, shelved plans for five level apartment complexes capable of including 100 flats, and instead will build eight standalone $2 million homes on the 3240 square metre final portion of land.
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WESTFIELD Group is reportedly considering buying the Wynyard Complex in the Sydney CBD.
The purchase from Thakral Holdings is for a reported $250 million and includes a small retail centre with access to George Street and which forms a concourse entrance to the Wynyard train station.
The asset also includes the 446-room Menzies Hotel, the Thakral House office building and a 335 bay car park, according to selling agency Jones Lang LaSalle.
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THE Australian Bureau of Statistics today released official building approval numbers.
They show the number of dwellings approved nationally fell by 1.3 per cent in April, after rising 8.6 per cent in March (seasonally adjusted).
Victoria held about steady, while New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania recorded major drops. By comparison, South Australia and Queensland reported notable rises.
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FASHION designer Alex Perry will attach his name to an 11-level Brisbane apartment tower.
Perry has teamed with private developer Chrome Property Group to come up with “Alex Perry Residential”, a high end apartment range, starting with a Fortitude Valley development where one-bedroom apartments will start from $375,000, and three bedroom flats are available for just under $1 million.
Alex Perry Residences will be developed on the corner of Ann and Chester Streets about 1.5 kilometres north of the Brisbane CBD.
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The West Australian government has announced a $580 million redevelopment of Perth’s old Treasury building. The redevelopment will include a
Read moreAGED care accommodation provider Southern Cross Care has paid more than $8 million for a landmark Adelaide property controlled by the Catholic Church for more than a hundred years.
The former Carmelite Monastery at Myrtle Bank includes a 24,000 square metre residential zoned site at the corner of Glen Osmond and Cross roads, in Adelaide’s ritzy east.
Southern Cross, which is developing a luxury apartment complex across the road from Carmelite, will settle on its purchase just before Christmas.
Read moreTHE FIRST listed property trust casualty of the global financial crisis – Centro Properties Group – has put two more
Read moreLend Lease Corporation Limited (”Lend Lease”) today announced that its UK public private partnerships (“PPP”) business, Catalyst Lend Lease, has been selected as preferred partner to deliver the £1.2 billion (A$2.7 billion) Building Schools for the Future (“BSF”) project for the City of Birmingham, Europe’s largest metropolitan council.
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Broadmeadows, about 16 kilometres north of the CBD, is one of the only suburbs in metropolitan Melbourne where one can still buy a house, on land, for less than $200,000.
Read moreTelstra’s decision to relocate around 4000 employees to the outer south-eastern suburb of Clayton, will blow out vacancy levels in several suburban office markets from 2009.
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THE Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will decide whether a developer can replace rundown offices at one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections with a colourful, 18-level apartment tower, sure to be a landmark within the bayside suburb of St Kilda.
Plans for the 2-8 St Kilda Road proposal show a unique building which will appear as several stacks packed on top of each other. Each stack (of between two to four levels of apartments) are burgundy, teal, orange, green, yellow and white.
The City of Port Phillip council refused the application citing height, scale and intensity concerns. Mayor Rachel Powning warned the building would negatively impact traffic flow and road safety around the St Kilda junction which connects St Kilda Road with Fitzroy Street, Punt, Dandenong and Queens roads.
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BANK ANZ has sold 20 Martin Place in Sydney to Boston based property advisory Pembroke Real Estate, which is acting on behalf of an affiliate.
The 21-level office building is the first purchase of a property asset by Pembroke in Australia.
ANZ is relocating to a new Grocon development at 242 Pitt Street in 2013.
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A CONTROVERSIAL new population strategy – which sets no population target at all – has concerned peak property bodies.
The Gillard government’s first population strategy, Sustainable Australia, Sustainable Communities, is “political in nature’ according to the Property Council of Australia chief executive Peter Verwer, who added it contained “little more than motherhood statements, previously announced government initiatives and ongoing government programs.”
“This is not a detailed plan for managing population growth and to describe it as a policy or a strategy would be stretching credibility,” Mr Verwer was quoted as saying in The Australian. “We need to grow our population, which needs taxation revenue to fund vital services,” he added.
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MIGRANT workers could help boost the delivery of gas projects in towns like Gladstone, in Queensland, under new plans by the federal Labor government.
Population minister and internal Labor debating instructor Tony Burke told The Courier Mail the government plans to rely on a boost in the number of temporary skilled migrants for booming coal seam gas projects in Queensland. He added the government would intervene local zoning laws in outer Brisbane to reduce traffic congestion, and try to encourage more businesses to quit the CBD, for the suburbs.
Mr Burke described the decision as part of a “sustainable population” policy to be released closer to the Budget.
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DEVELOPER Satterley has paid $94 million for a 104 hectare residential development site in its home town of Perth.
The land is able to yield 1200 lots, and is located in the city’s south-east.
“At a time when a land shortage is looming, this is a very important big picture buy,” Satterley founder Nigel Satterley told the AFR.
The new estate abuts Satterley’s Heron Park estate.
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THE Property Council of Australia today unveiled its “Adelaide in 2036” planning proposal.
The report proposes a city-wide masterplan to promote city living.
PCA executive director Nathan Paine said in his recommendations a taller hospital, on a smaller site, would allow the city to utilise its riverbank with taller buildings, much like Brisbane or Melbourne.
Read moreTHE DEPARTMENT of Education can expect to reap about $3 million from the sale of a northern suburb primary school
Read moreBrighton is Melbourne’s most expensive bayside suburb and is the only suburb outside of Toorak to record consistent home sales of greater than $10 million.
Read moreWT Retail India, a joint venture between Pelorus Property Group and Indian based development manager, Assetz Property, has been appointed to undertake the repositioning and ongoing management of the Garuda Mall. The Mall is a 26,000sqm multi level shopping centre in downtown Bangalore.
Read moreFoster’s move raises speculation it will eventually offload its iconic CUB Brewery site, which sits on 9 hectares of riverfront land overlooking Kew’s Studley Park. Industry insiders are divided about whether this will happen.
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VASEY RSL Care has reaped almost $7 million from the sale of a disused hostel on a massive block of land in one of Hawthorn’s more revered streets.
The 3560 square metre block at 20 Lisson Grove not far from the Yarra River and Richmond border is understood to have sold to a residential developer, but this could not be confirmed with Kliger Wood selling agents Nick Breheny or Eugene Wood.
Not far away on the corner of Lisson Grove and Glenferrie Road, the former Hawthorn Receptions Centre hit the market earlier this month with price expectations of about $8.5 million.
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Larry Emdur, has paid a reported $6.8 million for a contemporary cliff-top home in Sydney east. The game show commentator
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RENTAL vacancy levels increased last month according to SQM Research.
For the month, there were 6135 more residences listed for rent, bringing the total to 47,787 nationally. Last April the figure was around 37,000.
Melbourne had the highest rental vacancy rate at 2.6 per cent, according to SQM, while Canberra, the nation’s capital, had the lowest amount of rental stock: 0.6 per cent.
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SCOTT’S Refrigerated Freightways has paid almost $12 million for a distribution centre at Ormeau on the Gold Coast. The 2.1
Read moreGOLD Coast property developer John Fish can expect to make about $35 million from the sale of a 68,000 square metre development site at Hope Island.
The site includes the Marina Quays Tavern.
Paul Smerdon, a spokesman for developer the Fish Group, told the AFR the project would be better suited to someone with more experience at running mixed use sites.
Read moreAMP Capital Investors and the Meridien Group can expect to make between $100 million and $150 million from the sale of 12 South Australian retirement villages.
The portfolio includes 946 retirement village units, and 246 serviced apartments. The joint venture owners confirmed it will accept off-market offers on the assets as a whole, or individually.
The joint venture owners will retain villages in New South Wales and Queensland.
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MELBOURNE will soon have a choc-filled centre, with Swiss chocolatier Lindt confirming it will open a “flagship” chocolate bar in the CBD.
Australia’s fifth Lindt Chocolat Cafe will open in July, within the walls of a former banking chamber, at 271 Collins Street, a space occupied until recently as the global headquarters for the National Australia Bank.
Lindt has leased 200 square metres of refurbished retail space – about twice the size of a standard city shop – and will open a specialist chocolate flavoured cafe and bakery, to rival nearby caffeine-concourses Degraves Street, Flinders Lane and Centre Place.
Read moreLocated about 13 kilometres east of the CBD, Box Hill has become a lot more accessible since the Whitehorse Road tram extended to the Box Hill Central railway station.
Read moreIt was an accident waiting to happen.
In one corner, cashed up and trusting investors wanting to get the best returns out of their savings.
In the other corner, sales people for a property scheme, posing as financial advisers – earning a commission from every dollar they can get you to invest.
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LITTLE Project Developments – the construction company of local billionaire entrepreneur Paul Little – has reaped $14.5 million selling off the commercial component of a five-level building in Armadale.
The 863 High Street asset includes 615 square metres of retail space, 2567 square metres of A-grade offices, and 64 car parks.
For years until it was demolished in 2009, the site was home to the Geddes antiques store. LPD has also built and separately sold townhouses and apartments on the site.
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THE New South Wales headquarters of the Australian Red Cross has sold for $31 million.
The eight-level building at 153-159 Clarence Street in the Sydney CBD was purchased by Melbourne based developer and construction group St Hilliers.
The art deco building has been the headquarters of the ARC and Red Cross Blood Service since 1974, but was built around 1938-1939 as a warehouse and showroom for wholesalers S. Hoffnug and Co.
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MELBOURNE-based developer Grocon is reportedly close to selling a Brisbane office building for about $170 million.
Credit Suisse Asset Management has made an offer for the 55 Elizabeth Street property according to the AFR. The sale includes an as-yet-unfinished 20,000 square metre office, which will be leased to the Australian Taxation Office.
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IN A positive move for middle-aged and older Australians, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has ordered banks to relax rules that restricted borrowing capacity.
On April 23 ASIC announced it clarified responsible lending guidelines introduced in January – which inadvertently resulted in banks and non-bank lenders being rejected credit applications from middle aged people without a substantial retirement egg.
ASIC now says lenders must ask more questions to determine whether a middle aged applicant will be able to repay a 25-year owner occupier mortgage loan, if they are due, for example, to retire in the next decade.
Read moreCEDAR Woods has paid $18 million for a 273-hectare development site, offloaded by the Department of Defence. The former Bushmead
Read moreThe Holiday Inn Adelaide, has sold to Malaysian-based Hotel Grand Central, for about $35 million.
The 19-year old, 4-star hotel, includes 181 rooms, 90 car park spaces and conference facilities. It was offloaded by Singapore-controlled hotel company Tambusu.
Read moreRestaurateurs Frank and John van Haandel will pocket close to $20 million from selling St Kilda’s Prince of Wales Hotel
Read moreBlackburn is an understated eastern suburb about 15 kilometres east of the CBD, and just east of more exclusive suburbs Surrey Hills, Mont Albert and Box Hill.
Read moreWhile much of the industry’s attention of late has focused on Melbourne’s blue ribbon suburbs – record prices are being achieved in other parts of Melbourne as well.
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The owners of an Essendon shopping centre have proposed a residential-based mixed-use complex with three towers – the tallest rising
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AMP Capital Investors, with the Westfield Group, are set to redevelop the Macquarie Centre which they co-own in Sydney’s north.
The shopping centre upgrade will be the biggest undertaken in New South Wales for about ten years.
It will add a new David Jones store, a national supermarket chain and about 150 specialty stores – in a 30,000 square metre extension. Macquarie Centre is currently 96,500 square metres.
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RENTS for houses and apartments are expected to rise this year, as a result of accelerated economic activity, housing shortages and a depressed first home buyers market.
Australian Property Monitors, a property analyst, predicts a steep rise in rents this year, following what was a quarter of growth in March 2011.
According to APM, Sydney apartment rents have increased 7.1 per cent in the past twelve months, followed closely by Adelaide and Canberra.
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PLANS have fallen through to sell the Big Pineapple site on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The 170 hectare site has been relisted for sale on behalf of receivers PPB. It’s being marketed by Ray White Special Projects.
It had been reported the site would be redeveloped into a car museum – but the advocates of this plan failed to complete a contract, according to the AFR which reported the relisting.
MYER plans to open a two-level outlet at Perth’s Lakeside Joondalup Shoppping Centre.
A copy of the company’s press release is below.
Monday 17th May 2010
MYER ANNOUNCES A NEW STORE AT JOONDALUP
Myer has today announced plans to build a new store at Joondalup, expanding the number of stores in Western Australia to seven.
BECTON Office Fund has reaped $13.75 million for Adelaide CBD’s “Blackburn House”.
A private investor has purchased the 199 Grenfell Street office on a yield of 9.35 per cent. The 18-year old 5,060 square metre office has three street frontages, and is anchored by the Department of Veteran Affairs.
Read moreTHE VICTORIAN Civil and Administrative Tribunal has given developers the green light to build a 12-level apartment building in Queens
Read moreBlack Rock is a bayside suburb about 20 kilometres south-east of, and one of the only south-eastern bayside suburbs where the streets inland from the beach, fetch more than those on Beach Road.
Read moreCar enthusiast Lindsay Fox will build a master-planned new car dealership precinct at Essendon Airport. The businessman and philanthropist this
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CHINA Construction Bank (CCB) – reportedly the world’s second largest bank measured by market capitalization – has arrived in Melbourne.
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NEW state premier Barry O’Farrell will personally supervise the controversial $6 billion Barangaroo urban renewal project, set to replace industrial land – part of a Sydney Harbour container terminal, that ceased functioning in 2003.
The waterside project will include a compound of skyscrapers, one being a hotel that will jut into the water, in a copy of Dubai’s Burj al Arab tower.
The redevelopment was lobbied against by Greens groups and local councils, as well as wealthy Sydneysiders whose views will be lost. Protesters argued planning approvals were flawed, and resulted from the “mates” culture of the previous state Labor government.
Read moreA REPORT by finance giant QBE says one in 10 mortgage holders would not be able to make their repayments if interest rates rise by one quarter of a per cent.
This figure rises to one in four Australians, if interest rates were to rise half a per cent.
The report also says 80 per cent of first home buyers said the property market was overvalued, but one in five said they are still likely to make a purchase in the next six months.
The report, by QBE Lenders Mortgage Insurance, says on average 25 per cent of owner occupiers are suffering mortgage stress, with this figure likely to rise in line with future interest rate rises.
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Lend Lease has been appointed managing contractor for stage one of Ipswich Hospital’s expansion. The state government announced the works,
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THE see-saw property market that is Perth, may be set for another battering.
A week after a controversial super-tax threatens to end many West Australian mining projects, comes news office rents in the city have collapsed 27.4 per cent over the past year.
Average rents are now $696 per square metre, per annum, according to CB Richard Ellis, which issued the report on occupancy cost drops across 176 global markets.
Read moreADELAIDE retailer Truscott Casual Living went into receivership on Saturday with debts of about $5 million.
Truscott closed four stories ahead of the receivership, but 10 stores still exist, including in the Adelaide CBD, Croydon, Mt Barker and Port Lincoln.
Ernst & Young has been appointed as receiver.
Read moreTHE ANGLICAN Trust has reaped more than $1.5 million from the sale of disused land, at the rear of its
Read moreThe township of Berwick has undergone monstrous change over the last 20 years, and for a period was the fastest growing municipality in Victoria, and one of the fastest in Australia.
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