Whole apartment block enquiries soar as $50 million portfolio hits the market

Whole apartment block enquiries soar as $50 million portfolio hits the market
Staff reporterDecember 7, 2020

CBRE has identified a 48% uplift in enquiry for Sydney apartment block sales in the past year.  

The asset class now receiving twenty percent more enquiry than office, development sites or retail investment asset classes, with CBRE fielding 26,000 enquiries for apartment block properties in the past year, including 3,500 in the last month.  

This comes as CBRE’s Metropolitan Investments team of Nicolas Heaton, Gemma Isgro, Nick Wheatley, Toby Silk, Paul Grasso, Jason Lowry, Matthew Fenn and Aaron Arias prepare to launch six apartment block assets to market within the next month, totalling 83 units with an estimated combined value over $50 million and an average yield of 4.5%. 

The apartment blocks to be offered for sale individually are:

AddressNumber of apartments
111 & 113 Edgecliff Road, Woollahra (pictured above)24
50 & 52 Warren Road, Marrickville (pictured below)19
3 Mulwarree Road, Randwick8
27-29 Macpherson Street, Waverley6
21 Cooper Street, Paddington5
2 Sutherland Street, Cremorne21

Heaton said apartment block investments offer buyers a far greater yield than the return offered by banks or bonds, with far less risk.

"The icing on the cake is the ability to strata and sell down or totally redevelop in the future, driving higher returns over the life of the investment.”  

Gemma Isgro, noted apartment block buyers are looking to purchase an investment vehicle with an initial return of around 3-4%.

"These investments also provide a land bank for future redevelopment, potentially seeing strong total returns of around 10%,” Isgro said.

While apartment blocks are traded regularly, CBRE is the first and only real estate agency to create a specialised team focusing on this asset class.  

“Previously vendors turned to their managing agent to sell apartment block assets but with the creation of the CBRE Apartment Block team five years ago we are uniquely positioned to offer vendors a broader reach of buyers locally, interstate and offshore,” Heaton noted. 

Recent CBRE managed apartment block sales have bucked the trend of low buyer activity in the traditional residential apartment market, including:

MonthAddressNumber of enquiries generatedSale priceGross yield

September 2019

20 Alexandra Street, Glebe (pictured below)660$5.25m3.1%
August 201910 Henrietta Street, Waverley460$20m3.1%

 

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