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NATAGE A023 FOR SALE BY EXPRESSION OF INTEREST BELLARINE FREEWAY CHITON WAY POINT BOULEVARD 2,143m 2 • Prime infill site, approximately 2,143 sqm in size • Site is adjacent to the future community centre and retirement village • Main road frontage with excellent exposure • Located within The Point estate which will consist of 600 homes and is in close proximity to The Point Lonsdale village CLOSING Tuesday 20th of December at 4.00pm CONTACT Christian Ranieri 0416 445 078 Peter Kilkenny 0419 310 046 OFFICE Level 5, 52 York Street, South Melbourne 03 9862 9555 www.rpmrealestate.com.au PERFECTLY POSITIONED CHILDCARE OPPORTUNITY LOT 664 CHITON WAY, POINT LONSDALE CHILD CARE SITE POINT LONSDALE QUEENSCLIFF COMMUNITY CENTRE For all further enquiries, contact: Steve Cropley 0407 886 662 | George Iliopulos 0414 374 161 528 Main Street, Mordialloc, VIC, 3195 A rare opportunity for a club to acquire a long lease • Venue currently approved to operate 82 Electronic Gaming Machines • New long lease to be offered and negotiated • Substantial On Site Car Parking • Excellent views across Port Phillip Bay 03 9690 6444 Melbourne - Level 8/468 St Kilda Road, 3004 Sydney –Chifley Tower, Level 29, 2 Chifley Square, 2000 www.cropleycommercial.com.au EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST VENUE FOR LEASE - IDEAL FOR A GAMING CLUB Expressions of interest close Tuesday 20th December at 4.00pm at the Offices of Cropley Commercial WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2016 THE AGE 23 BUSINESSDAY = ? Chinese in billion-dollar buy-up Simon Johanson China’s Dahua Group is spending big at Point Cook. Photo: Isamu Sawa Chinese property heavyweight Dahua Group has outmuscled local developers to snap up a billion- dollar land pipeline in a buying spree that has handed a wealthy family, a syndicate of landowners and two young property players a $347 million windfall. Dahua Group’s purchase of three large land parcels in Point Cook in Melbourne’s west for $347 million mirrors a year-long buying spree in Sydney’s south-west in which the Shanghai-based group spent more than $400 million on three growth area sites in Bardia and Menangle Park. The east coast land purchases, along with several city-based pro- jects in Sydney and Melbourne, will catapult one of China’s richest men into one of Australia’s largest land developers with a potential pipeline of 8750 lots worth more than $2.5 billion. Little is known about Dahua’s Jin Huiming, who is ranked 310 on Forbes’ China rich list. His com- pany – previously a collective – is estimated to be worth about $1.1 billion and is among the coun- try’s top 50 developers. The group acquired its largest Melbourne holding, a 103-hectare site at 50a Hacketts Road in Point Cook, from Wolfdene developers Michael Goldthorp and Heath Woodman for $190 million. The deal values each land lot at about $105,000, a record for land in Melbourne’s west. Two other parcels, sites between 40 and 50 hectares in Point Cook and Aviation roads, were bought from a syndicate and a wealthy family for $75 million and $82 million respectively. The land sits behind Point Cook’s housing estates next to farmland and the RAAF Williams base. Biggin & Scott Land’s Frank Nagle and Andrew Egan, who ne- gotiated the deals, declined to com- ment. Dahua announced in April it was pressing ahead with a large $1 bil- lion master-planned housing es- tate to be called New Breeze – its first in Sydney – at Edmondson Park in Sydney’s south-west. Shortly after, in September, it snapped up another 134-hectare land parcel from Campbelltown City Council. All three of its Sydney sites will allow for 4380 homes and a new town centre in Menangle Park. No other Chinese real estate group has moved as rapidly into house and land development. Most concentrate their efforts in the apartment sector mainly in Sydney and Melbourne. A Dahua spokesman said the group had aspirations to be a major land developer. ‘‘It’s where we’re working towards,’’ he said. ‘‘We be- lieve the market is strong here.’’ Its latest purchases will propel Dahua into the major league of greenfield land developers along- side Stockland, Satterley and Villawood Properties in terms of portfolio size. All three of the Australian-owned groups were underbidders on the land. The Melbourne projects will take at least six years to move through planning and develop- ment hurdles before being avail- able to buyers as individual home sites. The group’s other projects in- clude a two-hectare development on Sydney Water’s Central Work- shops site in inner-city Waterloo. In Melbourne, development is under way on a 556-lot housing es- tate in Cranbourne West, south- east of the city. Another 56-hectare project called King’s Leigh in Werribee will support 701 homes. Retailers settle in upstairs as rents spike in Flinders Lane Simon Johanson ‘Previously they have just been used as office space.’ Phil Cullity, Savills A spike in demand for retail space in Flinders Lane has driven up rents and pushed retailers into up- stairs premises where they are competing with IT and profession- al consulting firms for space. Melbourne’s best known lane has seen a dramatic transforma- tion over the past decade from run- down warehouses and secondary office blocks to funky stores and chic, exposed-beam workplaces. Retailers, usually reluctant to take space above street level in buildings, were now moving into upper storeys, Savills Australia’s Phil Cullity said. ‘‘We’ve had more interest from retail for these areas,’’ Mr Cullity said. ‘‘Previously they have just been used as office space.’’ Wedding salon and dressmaker Bluebell Bridal recently opened on level 1 at 141 Flinders Lane in a 205-square-metre space opposite the Chanel Store, which itself set a precedent when it opened its multi- level store three years ago, he said. Another fashion boutique, Zambesi, also opened on the ground and first floors of 75 Flinders Lane on the corner of Ex- hibition Street. Mr Cullity said rents in the lane had now reached historic highs of $700 per square metre gross as vacancy rates tightened. Ten years ago, they were half that rate. Retailers with more established brands were willing to shift out of the street level, confident their cli- entele would follow them upstairs, he said. The boutique office space in the upper levels of Flinders Lane’s buildings were proving increas- ingly attractive to medium-sized businesses, he said. Warren and Mahoney Architects have moved into a 213 sq m office on level 4 of 141 Flinders Lane, Akesa Pharma recently took 160 sq m on the top floor of the same building and Maxcon Constructions took a 500 sq m space on the upper ground floor at 71 Flinders Lane. Developer pays $6m to unite next door blocks Property Simon Johanson Beijing-based developer Holder East has snapped up a vacant King Street block for $6.02 million be- fore it sold at auction, to add to a development site next door. The deal, negotiated by Colliers International’s Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman, Matt Stagg and David Sia, saw the Chinese group buy the corner site from local developer Vaughan Constructions. Thomson Geer Lawyers’ Eu Ming Lim acted for Holder East. Holder East purchased an ad- joining site at 511-525 King Street in 2014 for $10.05 million at a land rate of $5100 per square metre. The new site at 501-509 transac- ted a week before the auction at a rate of $6400 per sq m. Mr Wolman said Holder East in- tended to develop both blocks. Holder East recently sold a site it owned at 97 Franklin Street to accommodation provider Scape Student Living for $56 million. The 2000 sq m block had plans for a 62-storey apartment tower, which Scape intends to modify with a proposal for up to 800 stu- dent studios, typically one- bedroom, self-contained units. Holder East’s West Melbourne development sites are opposite the small suburban Eades Place Park. Interest from Chinese buyers re- mained strong and was expected to continue next year, Mr Hay said.
