Box Hill corner site sells on first day to Chinese buyer for $3.5 million: Savills

A former service station site in Melbourne’s Box Hill has sold for $3.5 million, which selling agency Savills said was at a record low yield of 1.8% for an industrial zoned property.

The property at 500 Station Street is a 1,090 sqm in central Box Hill and currently occupied by an exhaust repair centre at a rental of $63,000 per annum.

It is currently zoned Industrial, but is likely to be suited to future rezoning for residential use.

According to Savills’ Julian Heatherich, who brokered the deal with colleagues Benson Zhou and Clinton Baxter, the property was snapped up within a few hours of its listing. It was listed for auction on August 31.

The sale price was $1.5 million (75%) above the initial vendor expectations of around $2 million.

“The vendor was blown away, he and his wife are absolutely staggered by what took place” Heatherich said.

The buyer was a local Chinese development group.

He added that Box Hill was experiencing strong demand from both local and more particularly foreign buyers, looking to secure a foothold in one of Melbourne’s rapidly evolving areas.

A few weeks back, Savills sold another major Box Hill property suitable for high-rise residential development to a local developer with Chinese connections for $22,550,000.

Baxter said the site was close to shops, public transport and a hospital.