Fierce bidding for Brighton’s Church Street retail sites

Brighton’s retail sites are seeing significant interest, with one retail freehold site seeing eight bidders fight it out.

The site, 20 Church Street, Brighton was sold through Fitzroys senior associate Mark Talbot for $2.83 million – 25% over the reserve price and a sale yield of 3.1%.

Talbot said that the area has one of the lowest vacancy rates in Melbourne.

Previously owned by the Steele family, and located next to the Westpac Bank and recently refurbished Safeway Supermarket, the property is on 187 square metres of land with a five metre frontage.

Prospective buyers from both overseas and interstate expressed interest – finally selling to a local family.

It includes a ground floor café and first floor apartment that is separate, both leased for five years to Chloe’s Café. It returns $90,669 per annum plus outgoings and GST with 4% annual rent increases.

“The property’s location nearby tenants such as Sportsgirl, Lorna Jane, Kookai, Gazman and Decjuba certainly increases the confidence level of buyers, who can be assured that finding a replacement tenant in the future should be straight forward,” said Talbot.

“A development site in Caulfield of 867 square metres and 90 Church Street have been the stand outs, with prices achieved approximately 25% above reserve,” he said of strong sales in the local area.

Property Observer has previously reported that the retail strip is garnering significant interest from national retailers. 

Last month a 127 square metres Church Street shop sold for $1.3 million at auction.