Supermarkets snapped up on record yields

Morningside Plaza Shopping Centre in Brisbane has sold for $23.8 million.
Morningside Plaza Shopping Centre in Brisbane has sold for $23.8 million.

Buyers are snapping up neighbourhood shopping centres around the country, chasing yield and defying the gloom facing the retail sector.

Cautious consumers and a trend to online shopping have challenged the retail sector more broadly, but convenience retail and the largest flagship malls are widely tipped to fare best in the shake-up.

A private investor bought Morningside Plaza Shopping Centre in Brisbane for $23.8 million from Melbourne-based retail developer and investor Lascorp Development Group, led by Michael Lasky and Matt Lasky.

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The property, about 5km east of the CBD, traded on a 5.1% yield, matching the sharpest ever for a neighbourhood centre deal in Queensland.

Savills’ Peter Tyson and Jon Tyson brokered the sale of the 4431sqm centre that has a Coles supermarket as its anchor tenant plus nine specialty stores and 233 car spaces.

The vendors have refurbished the centre and remixed tenants since buying it in 2013.

“While Morningside Plaza was not for sale, we received an aggressively priced offer from a private investor to purchase the asset,” Peter Tyson says.

Elsewhere, a Melbourne-based family snapped up the Caltex service station Holden Hill in Adelaide for $4.45 million on a 5.96% yield, while the IGA supermarket in Melbourne’s Coburg sold for $5.95 million on a 5.86% yield at CBRE’s Premium Property Portfolio Auction.

CBRE director Justin Dowers says buyer confidence is surging for retail assets offering strong lease covenants with national tenants, despite changes in the wider sector.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.