Ballarat service station could be an auction bargain

It’s the opportunity entry-level investors have been waiting for: the chance to snap up a major service station site leased to a blue-chip international tenant for less than $1 million.

The forthcoming auction of a Woolworths/Caltex service station at Ballarat in regional Victoria presents as an opportunity to buy the only service station property in the city’s CBD, and at a uniquely affordable price point.

The property at 110 Humffray Street South will be sold at commercial agency Burgess Rawson’s next Portfolio Auction at Crown Casino on Wednesday, September 18, in conjunction with Colliers International Ballarat.

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Positioned on a central corner site adjoining Eastwood St, the service station is located just 200 metres from a Woolworths supermarket and BWS, and occupies 1004sqm of land, with 46 metres of street frontage.

Tenanted by major international operator EG Group, which recently acquired Woolworths’ fuel business for $1.725 billion, the property sits at the gateway to the Ballarat CBD.

EG Group has a renewed six-year ground lease paying circa $50,000 net per annum, with a further six-year option through to 2030.

Burgess Rawson director Raoul Holderhead says the property has already received dozens of enquiries since its listing was launched online, due in large part to its affordability.

The Woolworths-Caltex service station at Ballarat.

“We’re expecting it to sell for somewhere between $820,000 and $880,000,” Holderhead says.

“It’s a cracking little property, only 200 metres from the Ballarat CBD Woolworths and BWS liquor store. It’s basically the only petrol station in the CBD, and it should go very well.”

The auction comes following amid an outstanding string of results for the resurgent fuel retail market.

According to their recent Sales Investment Report, Burgess Rawson sold 28 service stations totaling $116.2 million nationally in the 2018/19 financial year, with yields as low as 4.1%.

But it’s the accessible price of the Ballarat property that is generating significant interest.

“It’s properties like this that show commercial property investments really are for everyone,” Holderhead says.

“It would absolutely suit a ‘mum and dad’ investor as a first commercial purchase that they won’t have to touch for more than 10 years.”

Burgess Rawson’s 131st Portfolio Auction will be held in Crown Casino’s River Room at 11am on Wednesday, September 18.