$165m in stock whets investors’ appetites

Private investors chasing pandemic proof properties are expected to chase top-tier fuel and fast-food assets including United, Viva Energy, KFC, Domino’s and Hungry Jack’s properties at Burgess Rawson’s $165m portfolio auction in August.

After a series of sell outs this year at pandemic-defying portfolio sales 52 assets will go under the hammer in a two-day national auction event.

Burgess Rawson national director, Jamie Perlinger, said essential service assets continue to fuel investor demand. “Service stations, childcare centres and fast food retail have all demonstrated a resilience to market impacts that many other assets haven’t been able to achieve,” he said.

“As a result, we are seeing the emergence of a new subset of highly motivated investors looking to deploy surplus capital into these niche asset classes, who might have traditionally invested in the residential sector or shares.” The two-day sales event will be Burgess Rawson’s fifth and largest investment portfolio auction this year.

Burgess Rawson’s auctions through the year have achieved an average clearance rate of 90 per cent, divesting more than $750m in commercial property sales on behalf of vendors.

Mr Perlinger said service stations values had held firm in the wake of Covid-19, with declining public transport use and an increased dependence on car travel, coupled with increased domestic holidays, bolstering demand.

“Their classification as an essential service, combined with secure, longterm lease profiles, have made service stations a highly attractive asset class,” he said. “Blue-chip investments in the banking and government office sector also remain hotly contested among investors,” he said.

Service stations in Victoria (Braeside and Somerton); Tasmania (Sandy Bay); South Australia (Queenstown and Parafield Gardens); NSW (Lithgow and Tamworth) and WA (Ravenswood) are among the properties at auction next month.

Other assets include government offices, an ALH Pub in inner-Brisbane, NAB and ANZ investments, and Australia Post, Chemist Warehouse, and Bridgestone retail stores, with values ranging from between $450,000 and $11m.

The two-day August auction event will be held in Sydney and Brisbane on August 3 and in Melbourne and Brisbane on August 4.