Commercial ‘unit’ in Townsville offered at bargain basement price

Samantha Healy

First published 13 May 2021, 3:07pm

Townsville City from Castle Hill. Picture: Evan Morgan

This could be the cheapest commercial space available for lease on the market right now – and it is cheaper than a basic apartment.

For lease for a bargain basement price of just $800 a month plus GST – that’s about $200 a week – the space offers 100sq m and it is located in the Townsville CBD.

But there is a catch.

This one is, quite literally, in the basement.

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The basement ‘unit’

“This unit is located in the basement car park of 358 Flinders Street and enjoys easy access from Ogden street,” the listing on realcommercial.com.au says.

“The 100m2 secure space is available for immediate lease.”

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A similar sized residential unit in the city could set you back $850 a week.

Ray White Commercial agent Troy Townsend said the owner of the building had spent $380,000 converting the previously unused basement into a money-spinner.

He said there were two storage units for lease, both for $800 plus GST each, plus “about 13” carparks, which can be leased for $150 a month.

That means the owner could snag a monthly income of about $3550 a month from a space that was not earning its keep.

“Carparking is still an issue (in Townsville), Mr Townsend said.

“The only buildings that are sitting vacant are the ones that don’t have carparking, and that’s why the owner invested the money for the conversion.”

Mr Townsend said a number of the car parks had already been snapped up by current tenants in the building.

He said of the 18 traditional commercial tenancies in the building, eight remained vacant and were available to lease.

“The commercial property market is definitely improving in Townsville,” he said.

“We had our biggest sales and leasing month in 11 years in April, the biggest since the last boom, and the majority of that turnover has been capital city investors looking for tenanted properties and also owner occupiers.”

Mr Townsend said many of the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne investors were looking to the regions because they had largely been unaffected by COVID-19 and offered a better yield.