A Queensland company has paid $32 million for a major Burleigh Heads site in one of the largest industrial land sales ever on the Gold Coast. 

The tenanted industrial site at 22 Rudman Pde was sold by Rudman Commercial Pty Ltd following an offers-to-purchase campaign undertaken by Crew Commercial director Josh Wright as the exclusive agent. 

The 5.5ha site, one of the largest heavy impact industry zoned land parcels in the central and southern Gold Coast, is home to tenants including Suez / Violia, Crushcon, Gold Coast Concrete Recycling and Procrush among others, and returns $1.407 million in annual rental income inclusive of outgoings.

The sale resulted in a 3.55 per net yield based on existing lease arrangements. 

Mr Wright said the campaign yielded 139 qualified enquiries, nine genuine offers, with the site selling within 48 hours of the campaign cut-off date.

He said the site’s location, with easy access north and south from the M1 Motorway, and rental income were both attractive features to buyers.

“The fact is, the property is one of the largest heavy impact industry zoned properties south of the Yatala Enterprise Area, Mr Wright said.

“We were able to divide potential buyers into three distinct categories comprised of those that were seeking to subdivide the property, developers looking to construct industrial buildings to either sell or lease or select parties that wanted to land bank and collect rent.

“It was the latter category that showed the highest valued interest and by leveraging all potential categories of buyer we were able to achieve an unconditional contract with a 30-day settlement which is quite remarkable for an asset of this type.”

Mr Wright said the number of offers received showed the underlying strength of the Gold Coast industrial property market.

“Demand is being driven by a chronic shortage of land on the Gold Coast, particularly in the central and southern markets,” he said.

“There are basically no vacant industrial buildings on the Gold Coast between 1000sqm and 3000sqm.

“In addition, developers are buying more and more sites for small-scale strata developments to feed demand from owner-occupiers, which is further driving up the price of land.”

He said he is currently assisting the buyer in a review of existing leases and in discussions with multiple tenants who have signalled an interest in taking possession of large areas of the site. 

Mr Wright said the shortage of land and buildings had fuelled an increase to not only land and building sale rates but also rental rates of 20 per cent in the past six months.

He said many Gold Coast businesses were reluctant to relocate from the suburb that they are already operating in because they feared losing staff.

“They are having to weigh up relocating to larger buildings in areas such as Yatala against finding additional premises close to their existing operations in order to retain staff amid a labour shortage,” he said.

“The lack of supply and high demand is being compounded by strong population growth on the Gold Coast with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to more interstate residents making the move and the population on track to hit one million by 2030.

“Without doubt the majority of businesses operating within the Gold Coast industrial market are seeking to expand and grow with business confidence high as the city goes from strength to strength.”

The sale is due to settle in mid October.

Mr Wright, who has 16 years’ experience in industrial sales and leasing on the Gold Coast, has negotiated over 80 transactions in the past 12 months including spaces previously occupied by logistics companies Couriers Please and Mainfreight, which are relocating to purpose-built facilities.

Crew Commercial was founded by five experienced agents with offices in Southport in the Gold Coast and Woolloongabba in Brisbane. The agency has negotiated more thzn  200 commercial property transactions and built a solid property management arm in its first 18 months of trading.

“We are on the hunt for quality agents seeking work in a genuine team that helps each other succeed while being justly rewarded for their efforts,” Mr Wright said.

For more information contact the agent via the contact form below.