Box Hill shops auction a Main St rarity
Hundreds are expected to turn out for the auction of a Box Hill retail property as it is put on the block for the first time this century.
The corner site at the intersection of Main and Market streets in the heart of the suburb’s retail precinct will be offered up on Friday, March 8, with agents already fielding a rush of enquiry from potential buyers.
If sold, it will be just the third property to sell on the Main St strip in the past decade.
Commercial Insights: Subscribe to receive the latest news and updates
While long-term leases are customarily a golden attraction for investors, in this case it’s the opposite: with agents suggesting that 42-50 Main St’s short leasing profile has heightened its appeal to potential buyers.
Most of the building’s leases – which currently return more than $300,000 combined annually – expire by 2021, paving the way to potentially add quick value to the property.
The retail properties sit amid Box HIll’s major retail precinct.
Set on 145sqm of land, the two storey layout has 287sqm of floorspace across four retail shops and the upstairs office. It also has 38m of street frontage and is located between the two major entrances to Box Hill Central shopping centre.
CBRE’s Lewis Tong, who is steering the campaign with Rorey James and Leon Ma, says the property has the perfect combination of scarcity value and a growing surrounding demographic.
“The property is situated in one of the most tightly held strip retail locations in Melbourne, where only two properties have transacted in the past decade,” he says.
“Box Hill is the largest city centre outside of the Melbourne CBD, with over 4000 apartments and more than $2 billion in infrastructure proposed or under construction, providing huge future rental upside.”
James points out that not one single shop or office space is currently vacant along Main St or Market St, with that demand providing great potential for future rent increases.
The property will be auctioned on-site at 12.30pm on Friday, March 8.
