Midas premises on Whitehorse Road in Balwyn sells for $2.85 million

The premises of the Midas Car Care centre on Whitehorse Road in the affluent East Melbourne suburb of Balwyn have sold for $2.85 million at auction today.

The 240 square metre premises standing on an 836 square metre site at 267 Whitehorse Road is leased to Midas on a 10 year lease expiring in August with no further terms of Lease renewal.

The property, which has 30 square metres of street frontage on the ‘homeward’ bound side of Whitehorse Road was marketed as an opportunity for an investor to either re-lease, occupy or redevelop.

Its net income was around $112,000 per annum. There were around four bidders.

The investor report notes that the landlord recently agreed to reduce the rent to $120,160 per annum due to a long-standing relationship with the tenant.

In the first year of the lease in 2003, Midas paid rent of $90,000.

The premises have been leased by Midas for over 20 years and include work bays, 12 on-site car spaces and paved hardstands and driveways. Midas have indicated a keenness to extend their lease according to auctioneer David Scholes.

The redevelopable land is zoned business 2 with the premises marketed by Billy Holderhead and Sam Newton of Burgess Rawson.

In August 2011, two retail shops set on a 400 square metre block of land on Whitehorse Road sold for $3.68 million on a yield of around 3.5% through Nick Peden of Savills.

Midas is an international automotive service chain headquartered in the US with over 80 shops in Australia.

Midas Australia was acquired by Lazard Limited’s private equity arm in 2008/09.

Other prominent retailers on Whitehorse Road include McDonalds, branches of the Commonwealth Bank and NAB, Woolworths and First Choice Liquor.

Balwyn is located within the city of Borondara, about 10 kilometres east of the CBD with a large, affluent Chinese population attracted to the suburb due to it being in the Whitehorse school zone.

Balwyn is home to the Balwyn High School along with a dozen other secondary schools nearby, including Box Hill High and Canterbury Girls School.

It is home to 2,861 residents of Chinese descent, out of a population of 12,944, according to the 2011 census.

The median house price is $1,280,000 according to RP Data and there is ample public transport infrastructure, particularly trams.