Shock as Mitre 10 store fetches double reserve price

A family who owned a site leased to Mitre 10 in bayside Melbourne for 35 years were reduced to tears after it sold for almost $6 million above its reserve price.

The vendors, selling agents, potential buyers and a crowd of more than 200 interested onlookers were left stunned after furious bidding for the property at 80-98 Ocean Beach Rd saw its price soar to $11.465 million.

The owners of the property in the popular holiday spot had set the reserve at $5.5 million but watched on in disbelief as hot competition amongst 10 bidders pushed the result to more than double that mark.

We knew that there was some X-factor potential with this property … but the auction result exceeded expectations beyond comprehension

The price represented a staggeringly low yield of just 0.39%, understood to be one of the tightest yields ever recorded in Victoria.

A spokesperson for selling agent CBRE says no one saw the result coming.

“We knew that there was some X-factor potential with this property due to its location and 40+ metre frontage to the main street, but the auction result exceeded expectations beyond comprehension,” the spokesperson says.

“The performance of virtually all super and prime commercial property locations around Melbourne is exceeding all of our expectations, at present.”

A Mitre 10 site in Sorrento sold for almost $11.5 million.

The property comprises a 2601sqm block of land with 1217sqm of improvements, with just under 43m of street frontage on Sorrento’s main street. It has leases in place until at least 2020 to Mitre 10 and O’Brien’s Removals and Storage, but is being touted as a future development site.

Three of the bidders were Chinese developers and investors, however a local investor placed the winning bid.

CBRE’s spokesperson says interest from the area’s well-heeled residents was a key factor in the huge price.