The Tolland Shopping Centre will have a new owner in the new year, with a "surprise buyer" bidding on the site at a Sydney auction yesterday despite not yet visiting the property.
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Fitzpatricks Real Estate teamed up with national auction house Burgess Rawson to sell the property at an auction at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday.
With four bidders vying for the precinct, the hammer fell at $5,050,000.
Fitzpatricks commercial portfolio manager Geoff Seymour said the price was "right on" what they had expected, but the buyer was a surprise.
Mr Seymour said the Sydney investor decided to buy the property sight unseen, making him a "rare fish in the Wagga market" where buyers tended to want to get a feel of a property before making the final decision.
He said the promise of an eight per cent return on every dollar spent was enough to draw the buyer in.
"A lot of those buyers .. are looking for yield and return," he said.
"Burgess Rawson would see it a lot more at their auctions."
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Mr Seymour said the shopping centre was one of 22 auctioned on the day with 20 properties selling.
"Sitting in the room there was a really good feeling about property in Australia, you could see people were confident in investing their money into property," he said.
"Property is a great place to park your money."
He said the settlement would last at least 90 days with Fitzpatricks continuing to manage the property in the meantime.
In the meantime, Mr Seymour said they would be working with the buyer towards filling the empty shopfronts at the precinct.
This is the first time the shopping centre has been on the market since 1999.
It features a takeaway, pharmacy, Dominos, bakery and IGA just off Bourke Street with a net rent of $445,208 per annum according to the property report.