Car park in Melbourne’s CBD sells for $20m+, the biggest sale of the year

The 700-plus bay car park at 28 La Trobe St, Melbourne has just sold.

A tightly-held Melbourne CBD car park has driven off with one of the biggest commercial sales in the city so far in 2024.

While JLL Victorian capital markets director Nick Peden declined to disclose the sale price of the property in the city’s East end, industry sources revealed it sold for more than $20m.

This sale has doubled the second-largest transaction of 2024, which was the freestanding building at 21-23 Anthony St that sold for $7.55m in February.

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Currently occupied by Secure Parking, the property comprises an eight-level, 706-bay commercial car park at 28 La Trobe St, across the road from the future Shangri-La hotel under construction.

Mr Peden said this was one of just four multi-level carpark sales in the city that had been offloaded in the last seven years, and was bought by an interstate-based private investor who planned to keep it long term.

“The car park sector is particularly tightly-held; there’s few and far between and when they come up, they’re a particular interest,” he said.

“With the City of Melbourne reducing the number of on-street car parks and increasing bike lanes, these off-street car parks in the city become more and more valuable.

“And I think we’ll see occupancy within these car parks is really increasing as well, probably in line with the pedestrian traffic within the CBD.”

Mr Peden believed sales in the city would increase nearing the end of the year.

He added that overall sales were down and had been for the last few years across the city, but expected them to pick up towards the end of the year.

“I think there’s been a period of flux where owners and buyers are sitting on the sidelines just to see what’s going to transpire and possibly waiting on interest rates,” he said.

JLL Victorian executive director Josh Rutman said the car park operated 18 hours a day, every day and had been successful over the years based on its location near offices and theatres.

He said the car park sale reflected the current low-risk investment market where buyers were looking for minimal ongoing capital expenditure assets.

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