Acland Street, St Kilda retail shops sells under the hammer for $3.6 million

More than 200 people turned up to see a retail shop in Melbourne's St Kilda sell under the hammer for $3.6 million - some $600,000 above the price expectations. 

Such was the strong competition for the two-storey retail property, at 143 Acland Street, that more than 70 bids from eight individual parties were received, with the majority of interest coming from Chinese and Malaysian buyers. The buyer was a Victorian private investor. 

The sale price equated to a building rate of $19,355 per square metre and reflected a tight yield of 3.7%.

The building is situated on a 236 square metre block in the middle of an iconic retail strip and had not been offered to the market for more than 60 years.

CBRE’s Josh Rutman, Mark Wizel and Rorey James were the selling agents.

“This record auction result is yet another example of the significant financial benefit vendors are recognising when offering their property to the public in an on-market basis when compared to off-market," said Mr Wizel.

He added that the strong interest from Asian investors is an indication that these offshore groups were becoming more aggressive and gaining further confidence in investing outside of the Melbourne CBD.

Mr James said the record building rate, which translated to $19,355 per square metre, was a strong result that set the benchmark for 2014.