Woolworths buys Melbourne bayside shopping complex

Mordialloc Plaza Shopping Centre.
Mordialloc Plaza Shopping Centre.

Supermarket giant Woolworths has snapped up the Mordialloc Plaza complex in Melbourne from a Singaporean based family in a $41 million deal.

The purchase of the strongly-performing centre after at a premium price in line with other neighbourhood centre sales and showed a sharp 4.39% yield.

The deal, brokered by CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Justin Dowers, Lewis Tong, and Kevin Tong, and Knight Frank’s Ken Smirk, has continued a run of transactions showing that convenience retail centres are selling strongly.

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Wizel says the CBRE team has sold seven centres this year and has garnered 56 bids across those sales campaigns.

“Retail assets with a focus towards convenience and non-discretionary tenants remain highly sought after given their track record of weathering fluctuations in economic trends,” he says.

Mordialloc Plaza

Mordialloc Plaza was owned by a Singaporean family.

Dowers says pre-Easter Amazon hype has done very little to dampen the enthusiasm of investors trying to secure retail investment assets, while investors had accepted the sub-5% yields on quality centres.

The depth of this market is about to tested by Woolworths, which has put a $150m-plus portfolio of neighbourhood assets on the block.

Cushman & Wakefield is selling two WA centres, in Seacrest and Aveley, with the supermarket chain and liquor outlet BWS as long-term anchor tenants.

The firm’s head of retail investments, Nick Potter, has also just wrapped up the sale of Coles Crows Nest in Sydney to an offshore investor on a yield in the early 5% range.

Colliers International is handling the Woolworths supermarkets in NSW, with sites at Lisarow and Nelson Bay, to be sold.

The firm’s James Wilson and Lachlan MacGillivray are handling the NSW centres.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.