News | advice | area guide

Property news, market trends and advice for property buyers and renters and plus Cambodia Area guide

Brunei prince turns profit from sale of Melbourne university building


Brunei prince turns profit from sale of Melbourne university building

Fierce competition for this property

Yarra River in Melbourne at sunset looking towards Southbank. Cornelius Darrell Sunarjo/Shutterstock
Yarra River in Melbourne at sunset looking towards Southbank. Cornelius Darrell Sunarjo/Shutterstock

KLW Holdings, a Singapore-listed company chaired by Brunei Prince Abdul Qawi, has sold a seven-storey university building in Melbourne for AUD34.2 million (USD24.7 million) to the Poulakis family of Harrolds fortune.

The deal, priced at a land rate of AUD38,212 per sq m (USD27,600), overshoots the property’s September valuation of AUD25.6 million (USD18.5 million). KLW acquired the property from Victoria University in 2014 for AUD23.6 million (USD17 million) or a land rate of AUD26,368 (USD19 million) per square metre.

More: Leading Edge: Are Asian buyers being set up for a fall in Melbourne?

The Poulakis’ purchase effectively ends months of competition for the building, located at 301 Flinders Lane within the Victoria University of Technology City Campus. “We have been selling similar buildings for near on ten years in the Melbourne CBD and never before have we seen the depth and aggression from buyers in the sector like we saw here,” Kiran Pillai of CBRE, which brokered the deal, told the Australian Financial Review.

“The [Poulakis] family called me virtually on the first day that the signboards were erected and said that this was something that they were very attracted too and would compete fiercely to acquire,” said CBRE’s Paul Tzamalis.

Read next: Which Australian markets are the biggest gainers of 2016 so far?

Source: Property Report