Commercial and residential property news
PERTH’s David Jones store in the CBD has sold to the Singapore listed Starhill Global REIT for almost $115 million.
The asset was put to the market by MCS28, a syndicate managed by Centro Properties Group.
The 4-level property on Hay Street Mall was valued at $114.5 million in June (down 13 per cent since last year). It sold on a yield of 7.75 per cent.
Read moreSURVIVORS of Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires will be able to rebuild their homes, without a permit, under a “radical planning
Read moreRegional South Australia is proving a lucrative investment with house prices soaring in many areas over the December quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of SA (REISA).
REISA President Robin Turner said the median house price for SA had broken through the $300,000 mark for the first time in December and prices in regional areas had played a big part.
Ashburton is a leafy suburb about 14.5 kilometres south east of Melbourne.
Read moreA home described by Melbourne University’s Professor of Architecture Philip Goad as one of the most important post war residential buildings in the country, can now be yours, for a short stay anyway.
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A LOCAL private investor has paid $10.75 million for a historic property at the south-west tip of the CBD.
The former Sir Charles Hotham Hotel (pictured, right), later rebranded the Hotham Private Hotel, and now the All Nations Backpackers, occupies sites at 2-8 Spencer Street and 566-580 Flinders Street, near the Yarra River.
On an 833-square-metre site, the property has been offered for sale at various stages over the years, but a lease expiring in 2018 is believed to have deterred residential developers.
LEND LEASE today announced a $122.5 million contract to expand and refurbish the University of New South Wales Wallace Wurth building.
The 10,000 square metre expansion is due for completion in March 2014.
Lend Lease released a statement about the contract, copied below.
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VALAD Property Group is expected to take a hit from the sale of its Sheraton Noosa Resort and Spa facility at Noosa Heads.
Valad paid $93.6 million for the asset in 2007, but its value has fallen to about $85 million.
The unrenovated complex opened in 1989 and is on a 9946 square metre site with a private mooring facility on the Noosa River.
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LAST year, by and large, residential landlords were the investors best able to reap the rewards of a short supply, by boosting their rents.
This year however, may be year of the office landlord.
According to a new report by commercial real estate agency Colliers International, office rental costs are expected to increase in most capital cities, because of a shortage of new supply and an improving economy.
It expects office vacancies to fall in all major CBD office markets expect Brisbane (which already has a high 9.6 per cent vacancy).
Read moreLOCAL private investors and developers George Atzemis and Constantine Berbatis have been revealed as the buyers to pay Eureka Funds Management $44 million for the Perth’s Holiday Inn City Centre.
The 181-room, 4.5 star hotel is expected to be refurbished.
“We believe the performance f the Holiday Inn in 2008 and 2009 makes it the cream of accommodation hotels in Australia,” Mr Aztzemis told the AFR.
Read moreA NEW tram line connecting the CBD to Docklands will be open within three months. The tram, an extension of
Read moreAs the rental market prepares for its busiest period of the year, Adelaide’s vacancy rate eased slightly to 1.63% for the month of November, according to the Real Estate Institute of SA (REISA).
Read moreSeventeen kilometres south east of Melbourene, Ashwood is bound by Ashburton, Burwood, Mount Waverley and East Malvern. Its nearest train
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THE owners of a 26-hectare Phillip Island farm, until three years ago owned by AMP Capital Investors and earmarked to become a retirement village, have applied to Bass Coast Shire Council to remove the entire aged-care component of the proposal.
The owner of the site paid AMP a reported $8 million for the Ventnor Road block and a permit for a 184-lot residential subdivision.
A major aged-care complex and community facilities were required to be developed as part of that permit. However, the council will now decide on whether to issue a new permit resulting in the entire farm, about three kilometres south-west of the centre of Cowes, being subdivided into 304 standard residential lots.
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SPORTSMAN Glenn McGrath can expect $6 million from the sale of his waterfront estate in Sydney’s Cronulla.
The former Australian text cricketer purchased the 3300 square metre property, with a pool, cabana and outdoor kitchen, in 2006. He wasmarried last November in the home’s large rear yard (image from the yard, right).
The five bedroom home also has a boat shed.
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BOSS of failed group Firepower, Tim Johnston, has sold his Gold Coast home for $3 million.
The riverside home with a private jetty and swimming pool was in the name of his wife, Sandra, according to reports – and may therefore be a bit trickier for stricken shareholders to claim a share to.
Firepower lost investors more than $100 million, according to Perth Now. The settlement occurred last December, when the businessman was to have appeared in court.
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CENTRO Properties Group is expected to list for sale a $4 billion portfolio of prime retail assets, as its bankers call for the company to settle its debts.
It’s expected Perth’s Galleria complex, and The Glen, in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley will be two of the 40-plus assets offered for sale.
Lend Lease, Colonial First State Global Management and AMP Capital Investors are expected to be in the mix of prospective purchasers, though the sale might also be on an individual shopping centre basis.
Read moreTHE CHALLENGER Wine Trust is understood to be selling about $20 million of dozens of vineyards around the country.
The trust’s manager Nick Gill told The Australian “We are in the process of reducing our gearing, as all property trusts are.”
“They are of varying sizes, all dotted across different parts of Australia, some in premium areas and some in less premium areas”.
Read moreVICTORIANS should brace for an average increase of about $50 in this year’s upcoming council rates. Several councils including Stonnington,
Read moreAspendale is a bayside suburb located about 30 kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD.
Read moreJingle bells are ringing for South Australian homeowners after the Reserve Bank of Australia decided not to raise interest rates at its December meeting, the Real Estate Institute of SA (REISA) said.
Read moreTHE market leading pace with which some western suburbs started the year, seems to have hit a snag, with the top ten suburbs recording relatively lower levels of growth than the other regions. Only nine of 22 eligible western suburbs recorded median house price increases over the metropolitan average of 4.2 per cent.
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THE falling-out of two of Melbourne’s biggest private developers will be played out publicly at the end of the month when agents auction a landmark city office building – on court orders.
The imminent sale of the former Ansett headquarters at 501 Swanston Street (pictured, right), for a price expected to surpass $50 million, is also fascinating those within the real estate industry for being likely to smash the record price paid for a CBD office at auction.
Interestingly, each of the co-owning vendors of the building, Vince Giuliano, head of PDG Corporation, and Mario Salvo, director of Salvo Property Group, is expected to bid for full control of the asset.
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AUSTRALIAN Cricket Captain Michael Clarke will this weekend vacate the $6 million Bondi apartment he once shared with former girlfriend
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QUEENSLAND’s tourism industry is “right at the bottom of the pits”, with expectations it will take some regions up to three months to fully rebuild.
That said, the government is trying to encourage visitors to the state, which has many businesses that thrive on the tourism dollar.
The sector is reportedly worth some $9.2 billion.
Billionaire businessman Bob Oatley told the AFR he expects it to take three months for some parts of Queensland to rebuild following fatal floods, and then cyclone Yasi.
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DEXUS Wholesale Property Fund has paid Colonial Direct Property Investment Fund $231 million for a portfolio of 13 industrial portfolios on Australia’s east coast.
The purchase includes eight properties in Sydney, three in Melbourne and two in Brisbane. Some are income producing investments, while others are development sites.
After the acquisition, DWPF’s portfolio allocation will be 57 per cent retail, 32 per cent office and 11 per cent industrial – though the plan is to boost the industrial allocation.
BROOKFIELD Multiplex will sell Perth’s iconic Cottesloe Beach Hotel.
The developer failed to obtain a development permit after several years, and will sell the asset as an investment.
Its plans for a $100 million high rise building on the site seemed doomed in May when the Cottesloe Town Council decided to retain a three-storey height limit in the area.
Brookfield Multiplex paid $17 million for the Marine Parade property in 2003. The asking price this time around his not been disclosed.
Read moreAFTER a false start, boutique builder R.Corporation has gone back to the drawing board, proposing to redevelop an historic horse
Read moreBacchus Marsh – incorporating Maddingley, Darley, Hopetoun Park, Parwan, Coimadai, Merrimu and Long Forest – is located about 60 kilometres
Read moreDB RREEF, on behalf of its direct property mandate with AXA Wholesale Australia Property Fund (WAPF), today announced it had entered into the South Australian retail market with the acquisition of a property in Modbury for $18.5 million.
Read morePEMULWUY, in Sydney’s outer west, is set to see a new residential development, soon, after a builder paid $5.86 million
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GOLD Coast nightclub owner Jamie Pickering is reported to have paid $2.5 million for a penthouse in the Circle on Cavill building.
The price is a sharp drop from the $5.95 million another investor paid developer Sunland for the flat, off the plan.
The result vindicates researchers who report some Gold Coast values have collapsed by more than 50 per cent since the economic downturn took hold in 2008. Some agencies report clearance rates as low as 10 per cent.
That said, a four bedroom waterfront home at Paradise Waters sold for $4.8 million. However that price was far less than the $5.8 million another investor paid for it, in 2005.
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SYDNEY based developer and fund manager Lend Lease has announced an agreement to develop a swag of national, master planned residential and community projects with Japan based Sekisui House.
The arrangement, which is subject to conditions, will see Sekisui acquire a 50 per cent interest in Lend Lease’s controversial 15-level Serrata apartment tower proposal, in Docklands.
Sekisui House will also buy land at Lend Lease’s Hyatt Coolum on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and a piece of a project at Wentworth Point, near Homebush, in western Sydney.
A copy of Lend Lease’s ASX announcement is below:
THE Brunswick terrace that was a finalist for the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Awards sold last week for $730,000.
Perforated House, in Wilson Street, was developed by Kavellaris Urban Design last year on a vacant block at the end of a row of 15 adjoining terraces, in the inner-northern suburb.
ARMADALE’s ritzy High Street – once considered the best place in Melbourne to shop for Persian rugs and antiques –
Read moreThe leafy suburb of Balwyn, and the neighbouring suburb of Balwyn North, are located about 16 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD.
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The rental market in Adelaide has tightened again with the vacancy rate dropping to 1.06% for the month of October, according to the Real Estate Institute of SA (REISA).
This is down from 1.49% during the month of September and reflects what agents have been seeing in the marketplace.
Read moreFor years there’s been a growing divide between suburbs that have increased in value, and others which fell back. Five years after the real estate market’s ‘peak’, we ask which suburbs really were ‘safe as houses’ for investors.
Read moreGlaxoSmithKline has sold a 7.32 hectare tract behind its long-time Boronia headquarters, in Melbourne’s east. For the deal to conclude,
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AHEAD of the federal government introducing new gaming regulations, retail giant Woolworths is believed to be in discussions with a burgeoning pub operator, to own a joint venture portfolio which would give it control of even more pokie machines.
It’s reported Woolworths has approached one of New South Wales largest publicans, the Laundy Hotel Group, which owns about 47 hotels and is considering proceeding with a $330 million purchase of another 20 hotels being sold the National Leisure & Gaming and Redcape Property Fund.
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RENTS in some parts of Brisbane are expected to soar as residents scramble for limited accommodation in the wake of the recent devastating floods.
Power outages, flood damage and blocked access is driving large-scale relocation, particularly around Brisbane’s west.
Student accommodation provider Urbanest relocated 1210 tenants from a 713-room complex in South Bank, to the Gold Coast, because power was cut from its facility. Urbanest CEO told the AFR he anticipates an influx of international students in about six weeks, and a shortage of housing supply.
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A MAJOR but confidential Expression of Interest campaign seeking residential rental properties – believed to be for the government’s affiliated affordable and social housing agencies – has closed after almost six months.
The advertisement sought 400 unoccupied dwellings nationally, configured as motel rooms, blocks of flats, disused retirement villages, and clusters of units and houses.
The mystery tenant is offering 12 month leases with renewal options of up to five years on a case by case basis.
Read moreBRISBANE-based developer Urbex has taken full control of a $250 million townhouse development in Ascot Vale, until recently a joint venture with Babcock & Brown Residential Land Partners.
The 17-hectare Ascot Chase project will be developed on a former Orica research centre bound by Doncaster, Stanford, Newsom and Walter streets, about seven kilometres north-west of the city.
ADMINISTRATORS for failed property group Record Realty should make about $95 million from the sale of two Melbourne office buildings,
Read moreThe suburb of Bayswater and neighbouring suburb of Bayswater North are located about 35 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD.
Read moreAdelaide’s tight rental market is continuing through to the colder months with April recording a low residential vacancy rate of 1.01%.
Read moreTHE Spring sale season has begun!
And with real estate prices just shy of their 2001 peak, Spring 2006 might be the season for new records.
Where do industry insiders say we should be looking?
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ANOTHER Wesfarmers subsidiary is playing “reluctant” property developer, by substantially improving the profitability of a prominent Doncaster site it bought to build a Bunnings warehouse.
The 1.1 hectare development site, abutting the massive Westfield Shoppingtown complex, may now be replaced with a $200 million mixed use complex including a multi-level Bunnings store, car park, and 350-unit residential tower, it is speculated could rise some 20 levels.
Bunnings paid $25 million for the collection of adjoining properties bound by Doncaster Road, Tower and Council streets in 2011, saying at the time the supersite would only be replaced with a hardware store, to complement the shopping centre next door.
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PLANS for a new $42 million, three-tower apartment compound in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong, are being displayed for public comment.
The development of a site between Neild and McLachlan avenues and New South Head Road, is being proposed by Sydney property group Lindsay Bennelong Developments. The three buildings will rise between six and nine levels with 112 flats. It will be flanked by ground floor retail.
The developer has recently completed a $180 million project next door, Advanx (pictured). That project, which replaced the Advanx Tyre & Rubber site, was delayed about six months because of a planning dispute.
THE Reject Shop and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries have been forced to close major Queensland distribution centres, because flood waters have engulfed their facilities.
The Reject Shop put a trading halt on its shares earlier this week, saying it needed a couple of days to assess damage at its six-month old Ipswich distribution centre.
The $16 million warehouse distributes to 90 of The Reject Shops 211 stores, nationally. When it opened last year, managing director described the complex as the “cornerstone” of that group’s investment in Queensland.
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THE federal and state governments are continuing to buy development sites and vacant properties that it can convert into public housing.
It has recently acquired two prominent properties in the seaside hamlet of Wonthaggi, about 132 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.
In the highest profile deal, the government outmuscled developers and operators for the former Golf Links Hotel, which is set to be redeveloped into a major rooming house.
At another site at 7 Mortimer Street, near the Wonthaggi town centre, a vacant block offering picturesque views over the Wonthaggi Golf Course and Bass Strait is also set to make way for a new commission flat complex.
Read moreCOLONIAL First State Global Asset Management is understood to be in negotiations to buy Perth’s Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre in Perth for about $450 million.
The speculated sale price equates to a yield of about 7 per cent, and a markdown of $40 million, from the shopping centre’s $490 million valuation in June.
Other institutions reported as being interesteed in buying the centre include Lend Lease’s Australian Prime Property Fund and the Future Fund, which recently sold a substantial amount of Telstra shares.
CONSTRUCTION of a boutique apartment building, on what was once land behind the Geddes Antiques stores in High Street Armadale,
Read moreThe bayside suburb of Beaumaris is located about 23 kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD, around the 115 hectare Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary and Beaumaris Bay – a small part of Port Phillip Bay.
Read moreHomeowners have survived the first half of 2007 without an interest rate rise after the Reserve Bank of Australia left rates unchanged at its June meeting.
Read moreIt’s a magic number, really.
Tell a real estate agent that you have $500,000 to spend, and they should be able to find you a house in any part of Victoria – Hawthorn to Hamilton.
We tell you what bang for your buck you get in the city, coast and country.
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LA TROBE University is readying to sell one of country Victoria’s most charming, historic rural properties.
The former Mayday Hills Hospital is spread over 100 hectares near the centre of Beechworth, and includes heritage gardens, and many classified buildings dating back to the 1860s.
Built as the Beechworth Lunatic Asylum in the 1860s, and originally stretching a half-kilometre from end-to-end, the Beechworth estate, and another in Ararat, were built to cope with over-crowding at the state’s then only mental institution at Yarra Bend (Kew).
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NORTH Sydney’s office investment market has recorded several major sales in the first quarter of this year.
In the most recent deal, Colonial First State Global has offloaded 50 Berry Street for about $30 million to local investment company Kingsmede. The 14-level office was marketed by Chesterton International.
Elsewhere in North Sydney, 90 and 100 Mount Street sold to Laing O’Rourke for about $50 million, according to the AFR. The site is set to be redeveloped into an A-grade office tower. It was sold by Winten Property Group with plans for a $157 million tower.
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SOME 10 per cent of properties scheduled for auction on the Gold Coast on January 28 will be mortgagee in possession sales.
All up 150 properties will be auctioned at the Ray White Surfers Paradise auction weekend, now into its 18th year.
The portfolio campaign includes 20 per cent more properties than scheduled, and will expand to include luxury boats for the first time.
Values for Gold Coast properties have fallen 50 per cent since 2008, because of a fall in tourism, and the collapse of high profile projects.
Read moreSALTA Properties is reportedly now in negotiations to sell its industrial portfolio to Singaporean government investment group GIC, for about $220 million.
The GIC offer replaces an earlier reported deal made by Korean pension fund Ikogest Asia.
Salta is selling eight separate logistics facilities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
Before news of a private sale, the portfolio was expected to be floated.
Read moreTHE massive Highett headquarters of security transaction products giant Leigh Mardon is understood to have sold to developer Hallmarc for more than $17 million.
The 2.13 hectare complex, within walking distance of the Southland Shopping Centre and Highett train station, includes a 4,643 square metre vacant site, which is expected to be developed into a retail, office and apartment complex.
A GRAND home in what is considered Melbourne’s best street – is back on the market for sale, after its
Read moreSpirits are high in downtown Malop Street at the moment, and it’s not just because the Geelong Football Club won the 2007 AFL Premiership Cup (though history has shown that when the Geelong economy is doing well, so too is its football club).
Read moreThe Real Estate Institute of SA said they were disappointed that no taxation relief had been offered to homebuyers in this year’s State Budget, particularly for those hoping to buy their first property.
Read moreYOUNGER home owners call it a bonus.
The baby boomer generation call it a rescue.
Accountants call it an opportunity.
Astronomical growth in house prices over recent years, has armed home owners with tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars of unlocked equity in their homes.
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A SLIVER of Southbank land, about the same size as would accommodate a standard inner-city terrace house, has sold for $1.23 million because of its redevelopment potential.
The 168 square metre site at 11-13 Hancock Street sold at auction this week before 45 observers. Savills directors Nick Peden and Clinton Baxter represented the vendors who constructed a workshop on the site in the 1940s.
The block is some 900 metres from the CBD, between the Crown Casino and Clarendon Street shopping strip. Sold with vacant possession, it is expected to make way for an apartment complex. Savills directors Nick Peden and Clinton Baxter were the marketing agents.
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PERISHER’s Marritz Alpine Chalet will be auctioned on May 16, as part of a settlement for the divorce of property tycoon Warren Anderson, and soon-to-be-ex wife, Cheryl.
The 25-suite Snowy Mountains lodge with a pool, bar and restaurant is expected to fetch about $3 million. The ski lodge fell into the hands of receivers KordaMentha in February and will be sold as a going concern.
Another property, the landmark Fernhill estate which includes an 1842 mansion, in Sydney’s outskirts, is expected to sell after Easter.
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RETAILING giant Costco is reportedly in talks with Brisbane Airport Corporation to purchase a major chunk of land.
Costco is in the market for warehouses of around 14,000 square metres.
Its Docklands store in Melbourne is considered hugely successful, and the group is also reportedly looking for more sites in that city, and Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra.
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KOREAN-based investors have emerged as one of the biggest buyers of Australian commercial real estate since the 2008 economic downturn.
In one of the most recent moves, Ikogest Asia, a Luxembourg-based, Korean-backed pension fund, reportedly made an offer to pay about $200 million for the industrial holdings, and part of a float being offloaded by Melbourne-based developer Salta Properties.
Singapore’s GIC is now reportedly investigating that portfolio.
Read moreTHE Reserve Bank kept official interest rates unchanged at 3 per cent, at its August meeting.
Below is a statement by RBA governor Glenn Stevens:
Read moreFORMER Geelong wedding reception venue Sladen House is being marketed for lease as luxury offices, after selling at auction last
Read moreAdelaide’s tightest rental market in decades is showing signs of easing after the month of May recorded a vacancy rate of 1.44%, according to the Real Estate Institute of SA (RESIA).
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The syndicate which repositioned Bentleigh’s Transformers nightclub into a mixed-use complex is selling up. The five level building at the
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THE luxury Sydney home outside which business Michael McGurk was murdered in 2009 has hit the market.
The 1916 built Californian bungalow in Cremorne has been on the market since Sunday with price expectations of about $4.75 million.
Mr McGurk paid $1.65 million for it in 2000.
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THE Brisbane Square office building has sold for $300 million to a consortium including Charter Hall Group’s wholesale Core Plus Office Fund, and Telstra Super.
The duo purchased the asset from WA super group Westscheme.
Measuring 57,300 square metres, the A-grade office sale is due to settle by mid November.
A Charter Hall statement is copied below:
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AUSTRALIA’s lucrative student accommodation sector is at risk, with cash strapped United States universities said to be preparing to open their doors to more foreign graduates in the wake of the economic downturn.
A cheaper US dollar, scores of student accommodation and faster visa approval times than Australia, should give the United States an edge, according to a report in The Australian’s Higher Education section.
“The obvious implication is the market for foreign students will become more competitive because you will have a lot of large and high-prestige universities competing for students,” he said.
Read moreA MASSIVE and prime located substation which pumps electricity to the inner-southern suburbs is expected to sell for more than
Read moreThe Real Estate Institute of SA (REISA) was pleased to host the national Institute today to talk about national real estate issues and the strength of the South Australian market.
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RECEIVERS for the owners of a versatile 555-hectare Truganina property, the largest asset measured by area to hit the market last year, are selling down the property in smaller chunks.
After failing to sell for a total $100 million in separate campaigns in 2010, and 2011, four industrial development sites, each measuring about 42 hectares are now for sale, in a campaign being managed by Biggin Scott Commercial’s Andrew Egan and Frank Nagle.
Accessed via Hopkins Road, the blocks are expected to sell for about $3 million each.
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Annandale Hotel is for sale. Matt and Dan Rule said the west Sydney property includes a permit allowing for a
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