A Chinese investor has struck the first significant neighbourhood mall sale in Victoria in six months after buying the Coles-anchored Village Lakeside Shopping Centre in Pakenham in Melbourne’s south-east for about $25 million.
Before this deal, the last noteworthy neighbourhood centre to transact in Victoria was the Woolworths-anchored Arena Shopping Centre less than 3 kilometres away in Officer, which sold to a local investor in November for $50 million on a tighter 5.2 per cent yield. Neighbourhood centre sales have been few and far between in the past 18 months – only half a dozen have sold in Victoria since January 2022– as vendors and buyers have failed to see eye-to-eye on pricing following the steep rise in interest rates, which has reset real estate values and rental yields.