ORIGIN Energy has sold a portfolio of five Victorian retail properties for $10.05 million.

The ASX listed company said that after a review of its retail market presence, the shops – which the company has owned since the 1960s - were surplus to its needs.

In Melbourne, Origin offloaded a shop and office in Bentleigh’s Centre Road shopping strip for $3.8 million, while in Oakleigh, a shop in Portman Street sold for $2.675 million, at a low 2.5 per cent yield. At 452 Sydney Road in Coburg, a former Origin shop now occupied by the Salvation Army, sold for $1.35 million.

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DEC, the India-based development company whose star-studded Australian launch last year saw Planning Minister Justin Madden skip one of his six November parliamentary sittings, has started construction of a luxury apartment complex, next door to South Yarra’s distinctive Beverley Hills building.

The Elan complex, at 59 Darling Road, opposite the Yarra River, will include seven two-bedroom apartments, and a penthouse, taking out all of the top two levels of the six level complex.

A Moreton Bay Fig Tree, once a part of the Beverley Hill’s apartment building’s famous side  garden, and valued by council at more than $2 million, will be retained.

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The record price for a house in Melbourne has been smashed for the third time in four months.

Former soft drinks distributor turned property developer Harry Stamoulis is speculated to be paying $25 million for a massive estate at 39 St Georges Road, Toorak, which includes a seven bedroom unrenovated mansion – once the family home of Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu.

The Baillieu family put the house at a trough in the prestige property market in 2008, where it eventually sold for $14.8 million to private investors the Zig Inge Group, who develop mainly retirement communities.

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ING Real Estate Healthcare Makes Huge Profit Selling Half Interest in East Melbourne Hospital For $14 Million.

ING Real Estate Healthcare Fund (IHF) has made $14 million from the sale of a half share freehold interest, in the Epworth Freemasons Private Hospital in Clarendon Street, East Melbourne.

The Epworth Foundation (Epworth), which has been a tenant in the building, has bought the other half, at the buildings December 31 2009 book value.

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LEND LEASE has announced the appointment of a new director of operations, Scott Charlton.

Details of the appointment are in the Lend Lease statement copied below:

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THE Federal Government’s contentious plan to build record amounts of commission flats and social housing around your streets, and without proper community consultation – seems to finally have caught the attention of the wider community.

Despite anger in some States that details about the mass roll-out of commission flats have been deliberately kept from the community – the State ALP governments are pushing ahead with major public housing projects.

State governments need to do so in an attempt to collect part of the massive taxpayer-funded $5.6 billion the Federal ALP government has allocated to the initiative, for projects completed before a 2012 deadline.

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THE biggest charity event in Melbourne’s commercial property calendar pedals off on Sunday March 7.

The Chain Reaction bike ride, which unites traditionally-competing developers, consultants, and real estate agents through a scenic but gruelling week-long route, will take off from Port Macquarie.

This year, participants will ride what could be a very wet 1000 kilometres to Noosa, in an attempt to raise money to set up and maintain the Starlight Room at the Monash Medical Centre, and support the Better Buddies program run by the Alannah & Madeline Foundation.

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AFTER paying GIO $16.5 million for 480 Collins Street, and then converting the building into a serviced office and apartment complex, Asian Pacific Building Corporation – owned by establishment family the Deagues – are selling the development’s strata titled ground floor retail component.

APBC can expect to make about $11 million from the portfolio of nine fully leased shops, returning between $32,000 and $87,000 in annual rent.

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SYDNEY’s 179 Elizabeth Street office building is reportedly close to sale for a price speculated to be about $95 million.

Echo Capital Partners, run by former Valad co-founder Stephen Day, is “in talks” to buy the building on a yield of about 7.5 per cent, according to the AFR.

GPT is selling 179 Elizabeth Street, in a deal expected to arm with it funds to buy a half share in the $800 million 163 Castlereagh Street.

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ANOTHER sportsman is turning his hand to a property development, this time in Brighton.

Swimmer Michael Klim is developing two luxury townhouses in the prestigious pocket of Martin Street, between St Kilda Street and the bay, in the precinct known as the Golden Mile.

JP Dixon selling agent Nick Johnstone expects about $5 million for the one townhouse that is on the market, which is opulently decorated in Balinese style.

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