Developer’s big buy
A MELBOURNE- based Chinese developer is set to go ahead with approved plans for 28 townhouses on a massive site next to South Geelong railway station.
The developer paid $3.15 million plus GST for the 5864sq m property at 259263 Bellerine St, South Geelong.
Geelong builder Malishev sold the property after it obtained council planning approval for the development on the triangular site, which runs parallel to the car park and railway tracks east of the station platform.
McGrath Geelong agent Jim Cross said the buyer made the most attractive offer for the property, which was passed in on a $2.5 million vendor bid when auctioned last month. PROPERTY GUIDE INSIDE TOMORROW
Mr Cross said four developers — two from Melbourne and the others local — made written offers for the property.
He said the bid was at the top end of price hopes for the property, which is one of the biggest vacant development sites near central Geelong.
“We’re seeing really strong confidence in the local development market as well as from Melbourne developers looking to enter into the thriving Geelong marketplace,” Mr Cross said.
“To find a huge site like this that’s ripe for residential development in such as central location is becoming near impossible, so it’s an exciting opportunity for the developers.”
The property has a 69m frontage to Bellerine St.
The project included 28 two-bedroom, two-bathroom, and three-bedroom, two-bathroom strata titled townhouses, Mr Cross said in June.
The townhouses would be a mix of two and three storeys, with generous balconies and courtyards, he said.
The buyers are the latest Asian-backed developers to invest in Geelong property.
At least five other groups with links to China, Malaysia and Thailand have bought properties or are funding development projects across the region, including two active greenfields development projects at Fyansford (Gen Fyansford) and Lara West (Austin) and the Balmoral Quay apartments project at Rippleside.
Meanwhile, a Geelong investor has secured a 2063sq m Geelong West warehouse site in a confidential deal.
Hodges Geelong West agent Sean O’Brien said the investor intended to find tenants for the 703sq m warehouse complex with car parking at 5-7 Pakington St.
It was formerly leased to V & R Fresh Food market, which closed early this year.
“It brings a potential new candidate into the Geelong West market,” Mr O’Brien said.
“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for someone to get a good long-term lease in place.”
He said the property offered the investor a potential development or on-selling opportunity in the long term.