Chinese investor doubles money despite permit rejection

18 July, 2021 – A Chinese investor has more than doubled their money on a Donvale land parcel, despite having a 40-townhouse permit application rejected.

The site at 25-35 Park Road, Donvale was sold in an off-market transaction conducted by Stonebridge Property Group agents Chao Zhang and Julian White.

Purchased by a Vietnamese syndicate for $11,000,000, who plans to continue with a townhouse planning approval process for 35 townhouses on the 13,279sqm land parcel, located in Melbourne’s east 19kms from the Melbourne CBD.

Stonebridge Property Group received a directive from the Vendor to sell the property in an off-market process. The buyer was sourced through Stonebridge’s specialist Asia Practice and is the second development site sold by Stonebridge in the past two weeks to a Vietnamese syndicate, after selling last week a site on behalf of Telstra at 18-26 Warwick Avenue, Springvale for $2.2 million the morning of the scheduled auction.

“This purchaser recently acquired a townhouse site from us in North Melbourne and had a strong desire for another project. Through our Asia Practice network, we were able to quickly place this buyer’s requirement who completed their offer on an unconditional basis” said Stonebridge Director Chao Zhang.

The sale also continues the trend of popularity of eastern suburban townhouse sites from the development market, after Stonebridge completed a successful portfolio sale program of three sites on behalf of Administrators, Cor Cordis last week.

All three sites sold under the hammer for a collective $9,495,000, and located at the following addresses:

• 6 Malcolm Crescent, Doncaster

• 27 Box Hill Crescent, Mont Albert North

• 79-81 King Street, Templestowe

  Stonebridge Partner, Julian White, said this campaign received unprecedent interest “We had over 330 enquiries, received a total of 84 expressions of interest, before converting the process to an auction, where 20 bidders participated in the three auctions”.

“Developers are very keen for sites suitable for affordable to mid-range townhouse product. The buyers are there for the end-product, so sites with permits or in advance stages of planning are the most sought after” concluded Mr White.