CHARTER Hall is set to start building a $75 million housing estate on part of Nylex’s former industrial products manufacturing and distribution complex in Mentone, a site which it has snapped up in stages over the past four years.

In a trend that is seeing interstate builders increasingly look to Melbourne’s outer suburbs for opportunity, the Sydney-based developer plans to build 119 townhouses on the 3.3 hectare site at the south-west corner of Warrigal Road and Oak Avenue.

Construction of the project, to be known as Aquilo, is set to start within weeks. Marketing of the first townhouses, priced from just under half a million each, commences today.

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PRIVATE investment group Nikos Property Group is believed to be making its second foray into the St Kilda Road office market.

Sources say the group is in advanced negotiations to buy the 549 St Kilda Road office for $21 million.

The building is being offloaded by Chartis, whose predecessor, American Home Assurance Company, paid $28 million in 1987.

Chartis is relocating its offices to Docklands.

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IN a sign of how dense living is set to become within the CBD grid, a tiny 120 square metre development site – big enough to fit about six parked cars – will become an 11-level, 25-unit apartment tower.

The owner of a site at 22 – 24 Bennetts Lane has decided to sell after obtaining a permit to redevelop the existing block into a major tower.

Two years ago, the site sold at auction for $1.1 million or about twice what had been expected.

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WARRNAMBOOL based developer Graeme Schultz can expect to make about $12 million from the sale of a 75-room resort on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.

The Sebel Deep Blue resort at Warrnambool, about 270 kilometres west of the CBD, will be sold with a lease to Mirvac Hotels.

The 4.5 star resort includes a restaurant, bath house, therapy pool, swimming pool, private bathing rooms and function rooms catering for up to 300 people.

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COLES Group Property Developments is understood to have paid about $6 million for a major retail development site in Coburg.

The 1.75 hectare property at 180 – 196 Gaffney Street also has access to Sussex, Lens and Marion streets – making it a prime site for a mixed use project including apartments and offices, as well as a supermarket-based shopping centre.

The site is currently a collection of industrial warehouses spread across fifteen titles.

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A PROMINENT eastern suburb site, once owned by members of the Myer family has sold to an overseas investor and is set to be rebuilt as a $100 million mixed use village of shops, offices and apartments.

An Asia-based builder has paid $16.25 million for the major 8395 square metre bulky goods complex on the south-east corner of Doncaster and Manningham roads, in Doncaster.

The site, with a street address of 602 – 630 Doncaster Road, is recognised as the Doncaster home of retailers Officeworks and Autobahn.

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THE Youth Hostels Association of Victoria is offloading a 56-room backpacker hostel at 76 Chapman Street, in North Melbourne.

The existing three-level building is expected to arouse interest from developers who may propose a higher density project for the 1023 square metre site, possibly with a component of public housing.

Alternatively, according to Teska Carson director Larry Takis, the existing building could be reconfigured into standard “own your own” apartments, and then onsold.

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DOCKLANDS next major apartment tower is set to take shape at 815 Bourke Street.

Vivas Lend Lease this month announced plans to develop Serrata, a 15-level, 144-unit complex, between Victoria Harbour and the Yarra River.

A Vivas Lend Lease representative says the development provides an opportunity for Generation Y “first home buyers” with a desire for city living to get into the market.

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A HEALTHY number of female real estate agents are competing to represent Victoria in an Australasian competition seeking the region’s best auctioneer.

For the first time, this year, ladies have chosen to compete in the Real Estate Institute award, where auctioneers must sell themselves, to a panel of judges.

Contestants will field questions from the audience, and must run an entertaining auction, while also being fully conversant about the laws.

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THEY came, they saw, they conquered – and now they are selling up.

The list of developers putting vacant blocks on the market after demolishing the period homes that stood there has grown.

This time, in Canterbury’s “Golden Mile”, builder AXF Developments is selling a cleared 2330 square metre site at the corner of ritzy Mont Albert Road and Wentworth Avenue.

The site will be auctioned with a permit for a medium density apartment complex.

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