The commercial property sector is showing tangible signs of weakness after a downcast Macquarie CountryWide Trust auction in Melbourne yesterday.
The listed property trust put 10 supermarket locations up for sale with a combined book value totalling $118 million. Only two of these properties were sold, for a meager $8.8 million all up.
The auction was seen as a litmus test for the commercial property market – which like all asset classes has been re-priced amid the global credit turmoil.
Macquarie CountryWide CEO Steven Sewell was not surprised with the weak outcome. “Interest rates have moved, and there hasn’t been a lot of positivity,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
Commercial property operators may now have to face the reality of revising valuations and development projects.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COMMENTS
SmartCompany is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while it is being reviewed, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.