13/04/2012 - Agency locks up key strip

A Real estate agency owner has ensured his presence in one of inner-north Brisbane’s most sought after retail strips.

Alistair Macmillan, the owner of Ray White Stafford & Wilston, paid $1 million for a 134sqm ground-floor retail building at 77 Kedron Brook Rd, Wilston.

‘I never actually intended to buy it. I was just more interested in just securing the Ray White Wilston office,’ he said.

‘I knew the property was going to auction, but it was too late in the process for me to even have interest in it and it wasn’t until after it was passed in that I pursued buying it.

‘To be honest the repayments of the loan are less than the lease.’

Raine & Horne Commercial’s Trent Bruce struck the deal.

The property, which shares one common wall, is returning $80,000 a year net plus outgoings and GST.

Mr Macmillan moved in this week after completing  a $150,000 renovation.

It’s a lot of money we paid for the shop, but the reason why that is it’s in a very tightly held area,’ he said.

‘For us, we had to be on the strip at the end of the day to be successful.’

Mr Bruce said the auction had been held in December last year and the property had been passed in, despite four active bidders.

‘On the day, we ended up at $760,000, which was short of the mark,’ Mr Bruce said.

‘And in subsequent negotiations post-auction, there were two further offers in the mid to high $800,000s.

‘The owner was quite firm on their expectations and we finally got the magic number.’

Mr Bruce said the Kedron Brook Rd retail area in Wilston remained very tightly held.

‘At Wilston right now, there is not a single vacancy on that strip and it’s one of the only areas in Brisbane where that is the case,’ he said.

‘We’ve now done five transactions in the past five to six months there and we’d love some more.’

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