Melbourne’s most expensive wall sells for $3 million

A wall that houses a neon sign near one of Australia’s busiest intersections has sold for more than $3 million at auction.

In what was billed as an Australian first, the side of a building near the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets in Melbourne went under the hammer at a Burgess Rawson investment portfolio auction, netting the owners $3.05 million and the buyer an impressive 11.7% yield.

The wall – which is on its own title – and its recently upgraded $1 million digital sign are leased to advertising company Digital Outdoor Media until 2039 and attracted interest from three bidders, who drove the price up after an opening bid of $2.5 million.

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The Melbourne portfolio auction at Crown Casino, along with another auction held in Sydney on Tuesday, saw more than 40 properties hit the market, with tenants ranging from retail stores to car washes, supermarkets and childcare centres.

A store leased to Dan Murphy’s at Queanbeyan sold for more than $11.5 million at auction

Three properties leased to Dan Murphy’s were keenly contested, with investors shelling out more than $30 million for the stores.

The liquor chain’s Gladesville outlet in New South Wales was snapped up for $11.51 million, just eclipsing a Queanbeyan store at $11.3 million, while the third site in Broadmeadows, just outside Melbourne, was sold for $7.75 million to a Brisbane bidder who emerged with a winning bid late in the auction.

A Bunnings Warehouse site in regional Victorian town Swan Hill provided an entertaining sideshow to its sale price of $10.95 million, with one bidder repeatedly standing and turning to face the room in order to eyeball his competition.

This Woolworths at George Town in Tasmania sold for almost $5 million

A Tasmanian Woolworths hyped as “Australia’s most affordable” was picked off for $4.95 million. The supermarket at George Town in the state’s north-east is leased to the retail giant until at least 2032, and its annual rent of almost $337,000 will deliver the new owner a 6.8% yield.

Another shopping centre anchored by Woolworths at Gundahlin in the ACT went for $11.765 million, while a property leased to fast food destination Hungry Jack’s at Innisfail in Queensland reached $2.825 million at a yield of 5.71%.