Investors in marathon auction for $18m Sydney servo
A 7-Eleven service station with a McDonald’s outlet in western Sydney was sold under the hammer for $18.4 million – the highest price paid so far this year for such an asset – after nearly 300 bids at a commercial real estate auction in Sydney on Tuesday.
Not only did the sale set the highest price for a convenience retail and fast food asset so far in 2025, it also achieved the strongest investment yield for a $5 million-plus asset in that category this year.
The Greystanes property was sold under the hammer to a Sydney-based investor during the latest auction conducted by real estate agency Burgess Rawson on Tuesday, which puts together a portfolio of commercial properties typically attracting private investors.
During Tuesday’s auction, $35.76 million of assets changed hands after a 75 per cent success rate. Overall, the properties were sold on a blended yield of 4.92 per cent.
Bidding for the service station at 601-605 Great Western Highway was hotly contested. After an opening bid of $14.8 million, the auction ran for over an hour as 293 bids were lodged. The property was announced on the market at $15.605 million with a 4.67 per cent yield, before selling for $18.4 million and a 3.97 per cent yield.
Underpinning the real estate are strong tenancies with McDonald’s and 7-Eleven, which signed 20- and 15-year leases respectively when the property was developed in 2019.
Property and company records show Craig Smith, director at Smith Property Group and Greystanes Service Centre Pty Ltd, purchased the site – undeveloped land at the time – in 2018 for $4.5 million.
Yosh Mendis, national partner at Burgess Rawson, said from a tenant covenant perspective 7-Eleven and McDonald’s were globally powerful brands and among the most secure tenants in the market.
“Properties that are built for these tenants, it takes time, and it’s not easy. They’re very selective about locations that they’re on. And when they’re in these locations, they just never move,” Mendis told The Australian Financial Review.
“From a buying land perspective … with increased land prices and construction costs, these properties are getting rarer and rarer. People who own them have immense security, not only in the tenant covenant, but also the real estate underneath.”
Early education assets also performed well at the auction. Little Lambs Preschool in Tuross Head, NSW sold for $1.56 million at a 4.99 per cent yield, as well as Little Kindy in Forbes, NSW for $3.701 million at a 5.1 per cent yield.
Earlier this month, global real estate firm CBRE bought out Burgess Rawson’s eastern seaboard outfit in a move to tap into the homegrown platform’s well-established network of high net worth investors.
