Regional essential service gem expected to garner big interest

One of country Victoria’s most important medical facilities will be the latest to take advantage of the strong interest in regional commercial property when it is auctioned next month.

The Wangaratta Specialist Centre will be sold at Burgess Rawson’s Investment Portfolio Auction on Wednesday, September 23, after a series of promising results for other assets nearby in recent months.

This brand-new medical centre is fully occupied by seven permanent and 11 visiting medical specialists and sits within the local medical precinct, just metres from other complementary medical services, Northeast Health Wangaratta Hospital and Wangaratta Private Hospital.

Offering a 570sqm building across a 2227sqm land parcel with 29 car spaces on title and 42 metres of street frontage, the property at 6 Green Street currently returns $227,804 per annum, plus GST.

Burgess Rawson director Raoul Holderhead, who is marketing the asset with Beau Coulter and Shaun Venables, in conjunction with Mike Noble from Garry Nash & Co, said the race to secure ‘essential service’ investments had intensified in recent months.

“Essential service-type properties, and particularly medical services, are among the best long-term investments in the current market,” Mr Holderhead said.

“By their very nature these services are critical for communities and will always require bricks and mortar properties and cannot be disrupted by technology or global events.”

The medical centre has a weighted average lease expiry of 4.68 years and offers significant depreciation allowances, while tenants are on investor-preferred net leases.

Mr Holderhead said that with uncertainty surrounding some asset classes in metropolitan Melbourne, investors were increasingly seeking properties in key regional locations.

“We’ve had some phenomenal success in Wangaratta in recent times, with a childcare centre selling earlier this month for $3.6 million, and a Hungry Jack’s trading at our last auction on a yield of 5.8%,” he said.

“With a service catchment of more than 58,000 people, it’s a wonderfully progressive regional city and a great place to own commercial property.”

Burgess Rawson’s Investment Portfolio Auction will be held at 11am AEST on Wednesday, September 23.