Hundreds turn out for record Acland Street auction

Melbourne, 25 March 2014 – A prominent retail building in St Kilda sold for $3.6 million last Friday following a successful auction, which attracted a crowd of more than 200 people. 

Located at 143 Acland Street, the property is currently leased to national retailer San Churro Chocolateria and includes a one bedroom upstairs apartment. The building, which is situated on a 236sqm block in the middle of an iconic retail strip, had not been offered to the market for more than 60 years.

CBRE’s Josh Rutman, Mark Wizel and Rorey James managed the sale campaign, and said price expectations had been about $3 million.

“The sale of this property for $3.6 million represented a yield of 3.7% and a record building rate per square metre for retail properties sold in Acland Street,” Mr Wizel said.

“This record auction result is yet another example of the significant financial benefit vendors are recognising when offering their property to the public in an on-market basis when compared to off-market.”

Mr Wizel said more than 70 bids were lodged throughout the auction from eight different parties, with the majority of interest coming from Chinese and Malaysian buyers.

He commented: “The strong interest from Asian investors is an indication that these off-shore groups are becoming more aggressive and gaining further confidence in investing outside of the Melbourne CBD.”

Mr James said that while there was continued strong demand from offshore Asian investors, the auction result was yet another sign of resurgence in the local investor market.

“Investors are looking to capitalise on the record low interest rate environment, as well as seeking a genuine alternative to term deposits and the volatile share market,” Mr James said.

Mr James said the record building rate, which translated to $19,355 per sqm, was a strong result that set the benchmark for 2014.

“This result is a clear indication that buyers in the current market are aggressively seeking high quality retail properties in well located areas and are willing to pay premium prices to do so,” Mr Wizel said.