Prahran’s Perfect Permitted Site Snapped Up

A prized, permitted Prahran development site has sold for an outstanding $10million to Malaysian developer SP Setia following a hotly contested auction.

Colliers International’s Trent Hobart, Hamish Burgess and Ben Baines have sold an 850sqm site at 103-105 High Street in Prahran following strong competition from local and offshore developers.

“Opportunities are becoming fewer and fewer in this sought after area, particularly opportunities that come with a permit of this calibre,” Mr Burgess said.

“Not surprisingly, this auction was hotly contested, with numerous bidders and a 150-plus strong crowd.”

The property was sold on a land rate of $11,765/sqm and a unit rate of $212,766. Mr Baines said the site sold just 16 months ago for $6.2million and was the first site within the City of Stonnington, outside the high density Forest Hill precinct, where a site had sold for in excess of $10,000 /sqm.

The high profile site close to Chapel Street, Greville Street and Prahran train station has a permit for a development with a total net saleable area of 4,321sqm comprising seven levels of apartments, ground floor retail and a floor of office space, along with 63 car spaces.

“Established offshore entrants in the Melbourne market are now looking to recylcle funds from their initial projects creating another wave of aggressive bidding for well located, blue chip, permitted development sites,” Mr Burgess said.

The scheme by respected architects Rothe Lowman capitalised on the potential for stunning CBD views.

“This site is situated in a highly sought after city fringe location, with Prahran having experienced tremendous growth of almost 24% in median house prices over the past 12 months,” Mr Hobart said. “In proximity to all the best of Melbourne’s restaurants, retail and public transport amenity, this site is perfect for a boutique, high end residential and part mixed use development targeted towards the owner occupier market.

“Opportunities like this are very rare at the moment. The reason for this is that the market to sell the end product is so good that the land owners have low incentive to sell their sites. In light of this we are not surprised by the high levels of interest that were generated.”

It is SP Setia’s fourth land purchase in Melbourne, with Malaysia’s largest developer intending to develop a high end residential project on the site with a gross development value of $38million.