Rare Brighton childcare investment serves gourmet meals and a long lease
A rare entry into the world of Brighton babes has presented itself with the listing of a long-running childcare centre in one of Melbourne’s most affluent bayside suburbs, where meals are prepared by in-house chefs and early learning takes place within architect-designed play spaces alongside all-weather al fresco dining zones.
The home of Bambini Early Learning Centre at 75 Wilson Street has been listed for sale for the first time in nearly four decades, with a $4.3 million price guide.
The centre – which has operated from the property for 17 years – features an expansive outdoor garden with vegetable patches, a light-filled art studio, on-site parking, and interiors that hit the sweet spot for adults and children alike.
Pitched by agents as the “ultimate land-bank investment opportunity” in a bayside locale favoured by wealthy families, business figures and the sporting elite – including the late cricket great Shane Warne – the property sits on a 1133-square-metre parcel with 15 metres of frontage close to elite private schools, just 11 kilometres from the CBD.
Fitzroys’ Chris Kombi, Tom Fisher and Ben Liu are offering the property on behalf of a private investor who has held it for 37 years, and expect broad interest from local, interstate and offshore investors.
The property currently returns $274,760 a year plus GST under a long lease with options until 2044. Fixed annual increases provide built-in rental growth.
Bambini operates 12 centres across Victoria, including a location at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville, and is known for its boutique-style early learning environments, Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum and “homelike” light-filled spaces designed to foster creativity and exploration.
The Brighton centre caters for up to 121 children from as young as three months old, with daily fees of $199 for children aged under three years and $188.60 for children over three, reflecting the premium end of Melbourne’s childcare market.
The site features 10 rooms dedicated to nursery, toddler and kindergarten age groups, with a curriculum incorporating dedicated art programs, music and movement classes, bush kinder programs, STEM and science-based activities, yoga and sport sessions.
The centre also features timber floors, undercover dining areas, sandpits and a range of climbing equipment, encouraging outdoor nature-based play and sensory learning.
The operator’s premium positioning extends to nutrition and wellbeing programs, with on-site chefs using the commercial kitchen to whip up fresh seasonal produce, rotate four-week menus and tailor diets to accommodate allergies, cultural requirements and family preferences.
“Our Bambini community offers your family an enlightened early learning journey from three months of age,” Bambini’s website says. “We want to ignite a life-long love of learning in your child in a space that feels homelike and engaging.”
The centre is well-located for parents’ double drop-offs, as it’s close to primary and secondary schools, including Brighton Primary just 70 metres away. Brighton and Firbank grammar schools are 700 metres away, while St Leonard’s and Star of the Sea colleges are less than two kilometres from the property.
Middle Brighton train station is just a 560-metre walk from the centre.
Kombi says these schools “attract huge numbers of families to the area, ensuring ongoing demand for childcare services into the long-term.”
He says the federal government’s new childcare subsidy reforms are expected to further boost demand for childcare services and provide investors with greater operational certainty.
“The new Child Care Subsidy guarantees at least three days of subsidised childcare per fortnight,” Kombi says.
The listing taps into continued investor appetite for defensive childcare assets in tightly held suburbs, particularly those with underlying land value and future redevelopment potential.
Liu says Brighton has a reputation as a suburb to invest in now and in the future.
“Well-located Australian childcare assets with quality operators such as this continue to provide market-leading defensive characteristics, while the suburb’s fundamentals ensure future investment and development prospects that are comparable to anywhere in the country,” he says.
Fisher says opportunities of this scale in the suburb are exceptionally rare.
“The sheer size of this landholding and its blue-chip location provide excellent future development potential [STCA] and prospects,” he adds.
Brighton is home to the Church Street retail and dining precinct, which features drawcard stores such as Mecca, Country Road and Woolworths, as well as Bay Street village, the famous beach boxes, Dendy Park’s sports fields and heritage landmark Billilla Mansion, a homestead and gardens dating back to 1878.
Domain data shows Brighton’s family housing market remains firmly in prestige territory, with four-bedroom houses carrying a median price above $2.2 million and five-bedroom homes exceeding $3 million.
The property is for sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign closing at 3pm on Wednesday, June 3.
