Manly church-turned-preschool with residential upside sells for $4.85m

“Centres like this rarely come to market, and when they do the demand is significant,” says Rory Alexander, senior executive at Stonebridge Property Group, who managed the sale alongside Michael Collins, Tom Moreland and Brett O’Neill.

“Buyers are actively competing for well-located childcare backed by a secure net lease, and a prior-to-auction result at this yield shows just how much weight is behind the sector right now.”

The former 1930s church-turned-early-learning-centre returns net income of $221,450 a year plus GST under a renewed five-year lease to 2029, with options to 2037 and fixed annual rent increases of 3 per cent.

Its smaller capacity puts it at the lower end of a market shifting away from childcare “mega-centres”, which can be harder to staff and keep at stable occupancy levels. 

Set on a 613-square-metre parcel with dual street frontage and four rare on-site car parks, the renovated multi-level building occupies a quiet residential street, with the land offering potential for a future residential subdivision, subject to approval.

The property sits just 600 metres from Manly Beach, 200 metres from the Manly Andrew “Boy” Charlton Aquatic Centre and about a one-kilometre walk from Manly Wharf, placing the Sydney CBD within a 30-minute ferry ride.

Former St Phillip’s Church became Manly preschool

The building began life as St Philip’s Church of England, constructed in 1938 as Manly’s contribution to Australia’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

A Northern Beaches Council local history record shows its foundation stone was laid by Archbishop Howard Mowll in February 1938, and it opened two months later.

Many local children attended its Sunday school and weekday meetings during the 1950s and 1960s. The building was sold to Harvest Church in 1987 and later became home to the Manly Christian Community Church.

Children returned in a different capacity when it became Noah’s Ark Childcare Centre in 2008, before later becoming Leaps & Bounds Preschool in late 2014. 

The long-term tenant welcomes children aged two to six and opens from 7.30am to 6pm for 50 weeks of the year. It offers a play-based program in what the operator describes as a “home away from home” that boasts a 4.9-star Google rating.

Leaps & Bounds has five locations: Manly in NSW, and Bunbury, Highgate, Serpentine and Capel in Western Australia.

Manly childcare site offers residential upside

Beyond its rental income, the property was pitched to investors for its valuable underlying land and longer-term residential potential.

Marketing material put its 2025 land value at more than $4.5 million, only modestly below the sale price. The site could potentially be divided into two residential lots from 2037, subject to approval, with a minimum lot size of 250 square metres.

Stonebridge partner Michael Collins says buyers competed on the strength of both the tenant and the underlying real estate.

“A prime Manly holding secured by a proven operator on a long net lease is a rare offering, and buyers competed hard on those fundamentals,” he says.

Childcare investments below $6m attract buyers

The sale falls within the most active segment of the NSW childcare investment market, where properties priced below $6 million are attracting a deep pool of private investors, according to RWC research.

Australia’s childcare property market recorded a record $1.44 billion in transactions during 2025 – nearly double the volume of three years earlier – followed by another $188 million in the first quarter of 2026.

The median transaction yield sat at about 5 per cent during the quarter, compared with 4.8 per cent at the market’s previous pricing peak in 2021 and 2022. The Manly centre’s 4.57 per cent yield was tighter than both benchmarks.

RWC’s Vanessa Radar says well-located metropolitan centres continue to command sharper pricing, while secondary properties are trading on yields closer to 6 per cent or higher.