PROPERTY
Bayleys has sold five substantial retail properties to a mix of New Zealand and Singaporean investors at a total value of close to $100 million.
Two of the sales, totalling $66.45 million, which settled during Covid-19 Level 4 and 3 lockdown, were of Auckland suburban shopping centres both anchored by Countdown supermarkets.
The largest of these was the Kelston Mall, which was sold on behalf of PMG Funds for $43.4m by Bayleys Auckland brokers. It was purchased by a private investor who attended a Bayleys Knight Frank Investment New Zealand seminar in Singapore.
The other neigbourhood shopping mall transaction involved the Meadowlands Shopping Plaza, at 112 Whitford Road in Howick which settled last week. It was sold to a private New Zealand investor for $23.05m. Located on a 1.886ha site with 5215sqm of retail space and 303 car parks, it was built in 1993 with a major renovation undertaken in 2011.
It has a 96.85 per cent occupancy with its current lease to anchor tenant Countdown running until 2026. Bayleys broker Cameron Melhuish says the supermarket (previously Woolworths) is among a number of founding tenants still in occupation, which also include Unichem and AA, with 12 tenancies having renewed their leases since 2018.
He says an added attraction was the under-utilised site’s Local Centre zoning which provides future development options, allowing for buildings up to four storeys with residential on upper floors.
Featured in Bayleys’ Total Property and Investment New Zealand portfolio, promoted in Asia late last year, the property attracted more than 100 enquires from domestic and offshore parties, with six expressions of interest submitted.
Johnson says the Singaporean purchaser of the Kelston Mall was the under bidder on Meadowlands. “They were still keen to secure a similar type of property within 30km of Auckland’s CBD. We provided several other options but Kelston was the one that best met their requirements and this sale was negotiated in an off-market transaction.”
