Melbourne shopping centre sold to Chinese investors

arena shopping centreThe $48 million sale of the Arena Shopping Centre, a neighbourhood shopping centre in Melbourne’s southeast, is the latest in a series of retail acquisitions by Chinese investors.

Over the past 15 months, Chinese investors have spent more than $380 million buying retail shopping assets across Victoria.

Located in the south-east suburb of Officer, on the corner of Princes Highway and Cardinia Road, the Arena Shopping Centre is anchored by a 4100sqm Woolworths Supermarket and BWS on a 20-year lease.

The centre, which is positioned on a 2.97ha site, features 25 specialty retailers as well as a freestanding McDonald’s and Caltex Service Station, which are secured on 20-year and 15-year lease terms respectively.

The centre generates an annual income of $2.65 million per annum.

CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Justin Dowers and Kevin Tong negotiated the sale to a mainland Chinese buyer from Shenzhen.

Dowers said the property attracted strong buyer interest, with the successful purchaser outbidding a number of local private groups, as well as Sydney based institutions.

He added the centre’s strategic corner position has always ensured a strong trade performance, which ultimately underpinned a huge amount of interest in the asset.

“We were delighted to see such wide ranging interest in the centre, which translated into a number of offers and a shortlist of four parties.”

Wizel said the sale reflected an initial yield of 5.38 per cent, which takes into account the larger than normal size of the centre when compared to other more traditional neighbourhood shopping centres in Victoria.

He said the sale of the Arena Shopping Centre is a very strong statement for the overall confidence that buyers have for retail assets in Melbourne’s south eastern corridor.

“Only a few years ago, there were questions being raised around oversupply of retail centres in Pakenham itself but this part of Melbourne has just gone from strength to strength and, if anything, there is a widely accepted view in planning that more retail floor area is needed to service the booming population.”

Dowers said the limited supply of neighbourhood shopping centres being offered to the market was underpinning strong sale results.

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