Price drops for prominent Newtown site as owner goes into receivership
A prominent Newtown site could sell at a massive discount after the owner, who acquired the property just nine months ago, went into receivership.
Buyers could pay up to $500,000 less for a prominent Newtown site after the owner, who acquired the property last July, went into receivership.
The 940sq m site at 452-456 La Trobe Tce, Newtown, sold nine months ago for $2.1 million to a Ballarat-based buyer who planned to take up a stalled development.
But it returned to the market this week after receivers were appointed to the purchasing entity, NDQS Pty Ltd, in March.
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Colliers International, Geelong agents Andrew Lewis and Jonathon Lumsden listed the property in conjunction with McGrath, Geelong principal Jim Cross, to be auctioned online on May 23.
An agent’s statement of information shows the indicative selling price was now $1.65 million.
The property comprises two dwellings on separate titles with a residential growth 1 zoning, with the high exposure from the four-line highway opposite Kardinia Park.
Plans and permits have lapsed for a three-storey mixed use development comprising 21 apartments, an office and an underground car park.
But Mr Lewis said agents were working with council to have the permits reinstated.
“The price last year was in excess of $2 million, and we’re looking somewhere between $1.5 million and $2 million,” he said.
Mr Lewis said the property could provide an opportunity for developers and owner-occupiers, with a car wash, drive-through coffee shop, fast-food restaurant or even serviced apartments among the potential uses, subject to council approval.
That section of La Trobe Tce has been a hive of activity recently, with two apartment developments under construction, along with a commercial building that’s become home to Geelong-based insurer Adroit.
Mr Lewis said the nearby residential developments had sold well.
“We’ve looked at those sales when we’ve been selling some other land and the rates per square metre of the dwellings has been pretty impressive. People like being there, that’s for sure,” he said.
While development is the most likely outcome, the site could provide an opportunity for owner-occupiers to leverage the great exposure.
An off-the-plan sales campaign for the Barwon Grange Apartments project ran from 2016 until 2018.
That project was slated to include a combination of one and two-bedroom apartments with designer kitchens with European appliances, open-plan living areas and large balconies.
Documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show the properties are the entity’s only real estate assets.
The previous seller of the property, Geelong Finance Company director Peter Desbrowe-Annear, is listed as a creditor.
Originally published as Price drops for prominent Newtown site as owner goes into receivership