One of South Melbourne’s historic Emerald Hill Terraces on Clarendon Street has changed hands for $2,940,000.

A 203sqm landholding, 336 Clarendon St consists of a ground-floor retail space leased to the Red Cross and a first-floor apartment. 

It is one of 15 Victorian era shops in the strip, on the west side of Clarendon Street between Bank and Park Streets, that date back to the 1880s and were progressively subdivided for individual sale from 2016.

At a glance: 

• 203sqm landholding
• Ground-floor retail space leased to the Red Cross
• First-floor apartment
• April 28 sale to a private investor

The April 28 sale to a private investor, a retired real estate agent, represents a new benchmark yield (3.78%) and land rate ($14,483/sqm) for an Emerald Hill Terrace. 

The vendor had purchased 336 Clarendon Street in late-2018 for $2.63 million, representing a $310,000 uplift in value in an 18-month period.

Rorey James, Nic Hage and JJ Heng from the CBRE Melbourne Strip Retail Investments team managed the off-market campaign.

“From the very start of the process, we were blown away by the positivity of buyers, about the property and the overall health of the Melbourne commercial property market itself,” Mr Hage said.

Hage told WILLIAMS MEDIA “we had been working with this buyer for three months; they had a strong desire to purchase commercial property as they were achieving extremely low returns from cash in the banks. The financial improvement gained through a commercial investment was a major drawcard.”

“Within two weeks we were dealing with four parties with strong interest, including the eventual buyer who has been in the property industry since the early 1980s.

“It became apparent early in the process that a return of close to 4% would be attainable, with a lack of available, good quality stock and strong fundamentals of the asset driving factors.”

The Emerald Hill strip of terraces is also home to cafes and eateries, a hair salon and Bendigo Bank.

Rorey James told WILLIAMS MEDIA “the vendor knew they had bought well at the time, and without making any improvements or bettering the financial position of the asset opted to sell after just 18 months of ownership.”

“Going into the process knowing that very few strip retail assets have sold amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unsure where values would sit,” Mr James added.

“Consumers have been changing the way they behave due to social-distancing measures. If this becomes a more permanent lifestyle change, we would undoubtably see larger numbers of people flock to their local, open-air shopping strips as opposed to crowded multi-level retail complexes.”

JJ Heng told WILLIAMS MEDIA “The South Melbourne precinct continues to be popular among investors drawn to its inner-city location, strong retail trade and substantial surrounding developments.”

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