Abbotsford Sale Underlines Demand for Melbourne's Inner-City

Demand for inner-city properties continues to be strong, with a development site in inner-city Abbotsford selling for $13.001 million.

The two-storey building at 247-259 Johnston Street was sold following an Expressions of Interest campaign.

The 2,171sqm site was offered with a development scheme for a 15-level mixed use development.

The property offers dual street frontage and is just 2km from the city centre and is less than 100m from the Victoria Park train station.

The sale was negotiated by CBRE's Victorian development team, Mark Wizel, Julian White and Jamus Campbell; in conjunction with Paul O'Sullivan from Lemon Baxter.

Mr Wizel said local developers were undeterred by any planning uncertainty attributed to the lack of planning permit, and bid strongly based on the confidence they had in achieving significant height on this property.

“Developers of sites such as these are willing to sacrifice some profit margin in their feasibilities, on the knowledge that they can sell the apartment product quickly and at high rates,” said Mr Wizel.

“We are currently seeing a high volume of apartment sales generating up to $10,000/sqm in this location, which is unsurprising when high median inner city house prices are taken into consideration. Good quality apartment accommodation is an ideal option for those who can’t afford houses in the area, particularly when you consider the neighbouring suburb of Kew has a median house price in excess of $1,800,000.”

“The high volume of apartment sales, coupled with the increased support for development projects from the big four banks and the continued population growth of inner city Melbourne, are instilling a lot of confidence in the industry and contributed to the competitive sale."[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d6305.027406531022!2d144.99189268329027!3d-37.80143486258677!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x6ad6431ca648fd77%3A0x779a933ffcf111ce!2s247%2F250+Johnston+St%2C+Abbotsford+VIC+3067!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1429486620282&w=800&h=600]