Hungry Jack’s headlines $36m in auction sales

The Hungry Jack’s at Caroline Springs was sold at auction.
The Hungry Jack’s at Caroline Springs was sold at auction.

Food-based retail investments are continuing to curry favour with investors, with a string of sales headlining a strong day of results at Burgess Rawson’s first Melbourne portfolio auction of 2019.

Six food and beverage-leased properties sold among the properties listed in a packed room at Crown Casino, with more than $36 million worth of property transacting in a strong opening to the year.

Fourteen of 22 properties sold either at or before the auction, with another five properties under negotiation.

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Buyers had a taste for a Hungry Jack’s at Caroline Springs in Victoria, which sold to a private Perth investor for $2.955 million on a yield of just over 4%, after heated bidding from multiple groups. The property attracted more than 260 enquiries throughout the campaign, with 62 contracts issued.

A prime Cowes corner site that has housed the Phillip Island Bakery for more than half a century achieved a significant result, selling for $1.6 million on a yield of 5.7%.

Phillip Island Bakery Cowes

The property leased to the Phillip Island Bakery has been sold.

A neighbouring fish ‘n’ chippery and dumpling restaurant at Point Cook’s SOHO Village sold within minutes of each other. The fish ‘n’ chippery fetched $690,000 amid strong bidding, while a $1 bid was almost enough to own the Chinese restaurant, with the owner prepared to accept the first bid above $660,000. After another buyer entered the fray, the first bidder was successful minutes later for $672,000. The prices both reflected strong yields of 5.87% and 5.7%.

A pair of pubs were also snapped up, with $1.22 million snaring the Telegraph Hotel at Numurkah, near Shepparton, on an appealing 8.69% yield, while the popular Giddy Goat Hotel at Rockhampton was sold prior to auction.

Burgess Rawson directors Shaun Venables and Raoul Holderhead say the results are a sign that investors are remaining buoyant about the commercial property market.

“The mood has been one of confidence. In what are considered more trying market conditions, people turn to passive investments,” Venables says.

“We had vendors that were prepared to meet the market, and to sell three properties prior to auction is another indication of where the current market is at.”

“The sharemarket is a rollercoaster and the confidence has fallen out of the residential market, but here you can lock in a tenant for five or 10 years and ride out a phase in the market.”

The Target store in Cobram sold for $2.2 million.

Other commercial properties also recorded strong results.

A Warrnambool pharmacy sold for $3.71 million – $800,000 above reserve – with the auction roaring to life after the property was declared on the market at $2.9 million.

A property leased to retail giant Target reached $2.2 million on a yield of 7.27%.

Two service stations leased to Westside Petroleum at Morwell and Sebastopol were sold for $5.9 million and $4.9 million, on yields of below 6.8%. The Morwell property traded at $650,000 above reserve.

A property leased to ANZ at Warrnambool in regional Victoria traded for $1.75 million on a sub-6% yield, while a Campbellfield industrial property occupied by Primo Smallgoods was sold immediately after auction for $4 million on a 6.57% yield.