Investors are ardently looking to take advantage of heightened demand for highly accessible, well-located office space, snapping up offices in fast-developing Moonee Ponds prior to campaigns’ close with knockout offers.

Fitzroys’ Ervin Niyaz and David Bourke sold Levels 1 & 2, 5 Everage Street, in conjunction with Patrick O’Callaghan of O&Co, for $3.2 million three weeks ahead of the Expressions of Interest campaign close, well above expectations.

Niyaz has also just sold 46 Pascoe Vale Road for $1.2 million prior to auction.

At 5 Everage Street, the immaculately-presented, fully-fitted air-conditioned commercial office encompassing 842sqm was offered with an attractive 5+5+3+3-year lease to longstanding co-working and flexible office space provider One Plus One Business Centre, which has been in occupation for over 20 years. The lease returns $243,000 per annum plus outgoings.

“We were able to source a knockout unconditional offer that the vendor accepted prior to the campaign close,” Niyaz said. The buyer is an Australian Expat living in South Africa.

“The buyer was chasing yield and saw the property offered a secure, strong cash flow, and as a rare opportunity of this size and nature in an outstanding densely-populated, surging location with fantastic hospitality and lifestyle amenity,” Niyaz said.

“The post-pandemic working environment has seen more people embrace flexible working arrangements, with people looking to work closer to home in highly-accessible locations with quality hospitality and lifestyle amenity. Demand for these types of spaces is expected to remain on the growth path, underpinning security of tenancy,” he said.

Niyaz said the property is in a highly sought-after location in the epicentre of the Moonee Ponds booming activity centre, surrounded by apartment towers, major redevelopment, and all the lifestyle, retail and hospitality that Puckle and Hall streets have to offer, as well as Moonee Ponds Central, anchored by Coles, Kmart and Aldi.

“Moonee Ponds is witnessing a generational boom. It’s seen delivery of the Mason Square precinct and more recently Penny Lane, which has brought apartments, retail and a new Hoyts cinema to the location, while the future $2 billion residential and lifestyle overhaul of the Moonee Valley Racecourse nearby has kicked off and will introduce 2,000 new dwellings as well as commercial space to the area.”

O’Callaghan said the property is contained within the Moonee Valley Activity Centre Zone 1 (ACZ1) which encourages high-density development.

“This could open up a wealth of opportunities for a purchaser in the future,” he said.

He said the property is ideally positioned between Moonee Ponds train station and Moonee Ponds Junction public transport interchange and close to ample public parking.

“Moonee Ponds ticks all the boxes, with a high-performing shopping, hospitality and lifestyle precinct anchored by Puckle Street, and excellent public transport linkages by train, tram and bus, and excellent connectivity to major road arterials and only seven kilometres northwest of Melbourne’s CBD.”

Further demonstrating the attraction of Moonee Ponds, Niyaz has also just sold the vacant building at 46 Pascoe Vale Road, just moments from Moonee Ponds Junction, in which another investor put forward a strong bid, well above the circa-$950,000 expectations, which was accepted by the vendor ahead of auction.

The single-storey 110sqm building is on a generous 249sqm site within the Moonee Valley Activity Centre Zone 1, with six on-site car parks. It has been used as the offices of an architecture firm.

“Again, we had an investor that has a lot of faith in the development going on in and around Moonee Ponds, and in this case was really confident in securing a quality tenant for the asset.

“This one attracted strong interest from both investors and owner-occupiers all looking to be part of the Moonee Ponds growth story.”