Esperance Park Life’s a Tourism Drawcard
The listing of a tourism landmark — Esperance’s Bathers Caravan Park — has opened the possibility of its future redevelopment as a residential neighbourhood. The current owners have long welcomed caravanners to their idyllic shady park, situated 200m from the white sands and crystal-clear waters of Castletown Quays beach, for less than $50 a night.
The borders may be open, but properties are still selling sight unseen to east coast investors. The latest such purchase was in inner-city Highgate, where an office and warehouse was sold by local company Alpin to an investor in central NSW, Mithency Holdings, for $3 million. Burgess Rawson’s Luke Randazzo and Tim Pittaway sold the facility, on a 998sqm freehold block of land at 324 Lord Street, in an off-market deal. The two-storey 980sqm property, below right, is leased to three tenants including Champions Gym, Aston Advantage and Escape This, earning a net income of $195,000 each year. The property sold at a 6.5 per cent yield, or $3006 per sqm, on the improved land. The investor was attracted to the inner-city location, diverse tenancy mix and future development upside. “The sale reinforces the increased demand we are currently experiencing from east coast investors who have identified WA as both a safe haven and investment opportunity hub as WA continues to operate consistently through the global pandemic,” Mr Randazzo said.
It was the best of times and . . . well . . . the best of times, for developer Minerals House Pty Ltd. A Kalgoorlie development has enjoyed textbook timing in recent years, culminating in an $8.15m deal. If developments ran to textbook guidelines, the first step would be to buy a significant chunk of land in a key industrial area during a property downturn. In this case, Minerals House managed this in October 2019 by buying a 10,017sqm site with double street frontage to Kayili Road and Yulpari Road in West Kalgoorlie, for $990,000. Step two, in an ideal world, is to build an industrial facility before a building boom hits. Minerals House built a 2700sqm facility including storage, workshops and 10-tonne and 25-tonne gantry cranes in late 2020, with the timing likely to have escaped much of the boom’s well-publicised price hikes. Step three involves finding a blue-chip tenant. This spot has been filled by international company Weir Minerals, which has signed up until 2030, plus options, for $544,487 per annum. Step four is to sell during an industrial property boom, when building costs are at a premium and east coast investors are clamouring for a piece of WA. Minerals House has managed this quite nicely by recently selling for $8.15m to a Queensland property syndicate. The sale represented a yield of 6.68 per cent. While we do not know about how much profit there was on the deal, the developer has certainly enjoyed good timing. Burgess Rawson director Rob Selid said the property was marketed through the real estate agency’s national portfolio auction process.