Two sites of the renowned retail institution, Leo’s Fine Food & Wine supermarkets, have been sold privately, with the sale managed exclusively by selling agents LAWD under instruction from Transaction Advisors Charter Keck Cramer.
The sale of the Kew and Heidelberg sites indicate a strengthening in the city’s residential property sector, and collectively represent some of Melbourne’s most significant, large-scale, mixed-use development opportunities.
The prime 6,835 square metre site at Kew, located only five kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, sold to Orchard Piper. Positioned at the heart of one of Melbourne’s most prestigious suburbs and with outstanding CBD views, the Kew site is zoned Commercial 1 Zone. It offers more than 140m of dual-road frontage to Princess and Brougham Streets, and exceptional access to transport infrastructure.
At Heidelberg the 6,105sqm site on Burgundy Street, 10km from the Melbourne CBD. It sold to private Melbourne-based Banco Group who purchased the property as an investment.
Developers seeking to have product in improving market
LAWD Director, Development Transactions & Advisory, Lukas Byrns, said the two significant infill development opportunities attracted solid interest from a variety of buyers, delivering an excellent result for the prime sites.
“We’ve seen an influx of activity for well-located apartment sites in Melbourne recently, as developers position themselves to have apartment product to sell into an improving market within the next 12 months,” Mr Byrns said.
“We had interest from developers looking for to build-to-sell, build-to-rent, retirement, in addition to groups looking to reposition the existing retail stores.”
The LAWD Development Transactions team has had a busy start to 2025 including the sale of Stockland’s North Shore in Townsville for circa $75m, the recent sale of 200 Tuckers Rd, which has been reported at $250m as well as Porta Park Fairfield to Cedar Woods for a reported $50m. The team has approximately $500m of transactions under due diligence or in advanced negotiations in Victoria alone.
Mr Byrns said highly desirable locations like these recent sales could assist in addressing the housing crisis.
“Melbourne is the most under-valued housing market in Australia at the moment,” Mr Byrns said.
“We’ve got a huge population growth, low vacancies and a lack of supply.
“Thankfully for developers, there are clear pathways for planning approval through the State Government’s Department Facilitation Program, which aims to accelerate approvals for projects that inject investment into the Victorian economy, create jobs, and provide housing.”
This off-market sale process was undertaken exclusively by LAWD Directors Lukas Byrns, Paul Callanan, and LAWD Senior Director, Peter Sagar, with Charter Keck Cramer Directors, Tom Byrnes and Patrick McNulty acting as Transaction Advisors
