North Bondi shops smash expectations by $8m

An iconic strip of North Bondi shops has sold for an incredible $25.4 million at auction today, well above the $17 million price guide.

The realcommercial.com.au ad describes it as “an opportunity … unlikely to be seen again in our lifetime.”

The shops, which have six apartments above, at 286-294 Campbell Pde, include longstanding tenants The Depot cafe, Doughboy Pizza, Sage Beauty and Nio & Tony’s local grocery.

Auctioneer Damien Cooley had five bidders line up at Cooley’s auction rooms in the city this morning, including one online.

The Depot cafe.

Doughboy Pizza.

The street talk is that one of the family members who owned the block has bought the other out. He had to bid in the public domain to get it.

Some thought this might have been a good buy for the well-known investor, Vaughan Blank, but he wasn’t in attendance.

Three participated, with bidding opening at $15 million and jumping in $500,000 and even million-dollar increments. There were 36 bids in total.

The sales agents were William Manning of McGrath in conjunction with Miron Solomons and Matt Pontey of Colliers International.

None were available for comment today, but industry insiders were gobsmacked by the result.

The reserve isn’t known, but it’s understood the price is well over that.

“We expected about $13 million or $14 million, which would be about right considering the income,” one insider said.

The strip includes the popular local grocery store, Nio and Tony’s.

An ocean view from one of the apartments.

“And it’s not a building you would redevelop, because it’s a pretty good building.”

The ad describes it as an “ideal defensive mix of tenancies” with a net income of $687,891 per year.

The apartments include four two-bedders and two one-bedders. There were also two garages.

This article from the Geelong Advertiser originally appeared as “Australian Taxation Office: The Geelong buildings that could save 100 jobs from closure plan”.