CBRE’s Premium Property Portfolio Auction Clears $100 million

CBRE’s inaugural premium property portfolio auction has achieved a 100% clearance rate with seven investment properties selling for over $100,000,000.

Over 300 people were in attendance including 63 registered local, interstate and overseas bidders.

Properties sold at auction included the national head office and flagship liquor store for Dan Murphy’s Australia, a freestanding Coles supermarket in the Warrnambool CBD and a freestanding Woolworths supermarket in Mackay, Queensland.

Four metropolitan Melbourne child care centres, each with 20-year leases, completed the line-up.

“We understood going into it that there was already an agency in the portfolio space however we knew that our product was different and would appeal to different owners and buyers of commercial investment property,” CBRE National Director of Retail Investments Mark Wizel said.

“The idea of the auction was to bring together a group of like for like properties that would appeal to a distinct group of buyers searching for high quality properties.”

Wizel said the 100% clearance rate was particularly impressive when compared with some recent commercial property portfolio auctions in Victoria, which had an average clearance rate of around 50%.

Several bidders flew in from China and Singapore, while other major winners on the night were Australian-based private investors, making a diverse range of bidders.

Prices ranged from $7 million for a child care centre in Melton to $22,520,000 for Dan Murphy's head office in Alphington – a price which reflected a record low yield of just 3.21%.

“Dan Murphy’s – the trophy asset on the night – sold to an Italian family who aggressively pursued the property, taking it from its on-market price of $15,500,000 to the eventual sale price of $22,500,000," Wizel said.

This reflects the tightest yield achieved in Australia for a freestanding retail investment property,”

“One investor, who recently sold a major parcel of land, secured multiple assets on the night and outbid a number of other aggressive local buyers as well as active buyers from Asia.”

Based on the success of the first premium property portfolio auction event, CBRE will be holding two further auctions in 2017.