14 sqm York Street, Sydney Normcore Coffee premises sold for $112,143 per sqm at auction
The Normcore Coffee premises on York Street in the heart of the Sydney CBD has sold for $1.57 million.
There were four bidders for the 14 sqm ground floor coffee shop at 37 York Street which came with no seating.
The successful purchaser was a Sydney local who was making his first foray in to the commercial property market.
It's the first time the premises has traded hands in over three decades.
The store was one of three shops owned and operated by Normcore Coffee, who had just signed a new five year lease on the property.
Market sources had predicted the 14 sqm offering would sell for between $1.5 million to $2 million.
The premises on the door step of Wynyard Station is exposed to 200,000 pedestrians daily.
According to Savills Australia's Nick Lower, the Australian coffee market and Sydney has the presence of several single store independent coffee shops, who tend to differentiate themselves based on the quality of their coffee ordered.
During the marketing campaign Lower said offshore interest in the property had been "off the charts," with interest from Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Singaporean and Malaysian buyers who are looking for "a safe haven investment with a strong return."
"With only a small number of offerings being made available in the core of the Sydney CBD, the undersupply of opportunity has led to an increase in demand from investors – looking for ‘blue chip, safe holdings."
“No matter what happens in the economy, or even in life, everyone who drinks it, needs their daily coffee fix to jump start their morning, and the hundreds of people walking past 37 York Street certainly enjoy what Normcore has to offer."
According to recent data, 75 percent of Australians have at least one coffee per day, and of those, 28 percent have more than three cups per day.