Sime Darby Buys Melbourne Site From Singaporean Investor for $76M

Malaysia’s Sime Darby has purchased a car park near Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market from the Lim family behind Singapore construction firm Evan Lim & Co and EL development for A$115 million ($76 million).

In a deal hailed as the largest purchase of a development site in Melbourne’s central business district since 2019, the Kuala Lumpur-listed conglomerate is buying Kim Lim Parking at 380 Queen Street, and with it the opportunity to develop a multi-tower project in the thick of one of the city’s largest renewal projects, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

The Lim family-controlled company Kim Lim Australia is selling the six-storey parking facility, which occupies a 3,218 square metre (34,638 square foot) site at the corner of Queen and A’Beckett streets, after buying the property in 1991 for A$9 million, according to local news reports.

No redevelopment plans have been filed to date for the still operational parking facility, according to local media, with the site located opposite Lendlease’s A$1.7 billion Gurrowa Place mixed-use project, which received final government approval in August of this year.

Market on the Rise

“The Queen Victoria Market precinct has emerged as one of Melbourne’s largest urban redevelopment zones, attracting significant attention and investment,” Cushman & Wakefield said in announcing the deal late last week.

The Lim family had begun their latest, and final effort to sell the car park in April of this year with C&W, which represented the seller, saying it received more than 105 inquiries and seven offers for the property.

The selling price is equivalent to A$35,736 per square metre of site area for the property, which currently provides 556 parking spaces. With Sime Darby having yet to commence the approval process for a new project, the existing structure also includes a 1,917 square metre showroom on the ground floor to boost income in the interim.

In 2015 the Lim family had marketed their Queen Street property for around A$70 million, according to local news reports, but failed to find a buyer. The Lim family’s Australian ventures are understood to be managed by Lim Yew Soon, who started EL Development in 2005 as a division of Evan Lim & Co, his family construction firm.

Queen Victoria Ascendant

The City of Melbourne has committed A$268 million to upgrading Queen Victoria Market, the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere, and the surrounding area, with developers leveraging the renewal project as an opportunity to invest in projects in the surrounding area.

The multi-element project includes renovation of heritage buildings, establishment of community spaces and a pedestrian mall, and development of new structures to replace 1980s-vintage market buildings on the site.

In March, Lendlease and student housing developer Scape Australia received formal approval for the A$1.7 billion Gurrowa Place development in the Victoria Market Precinct, opposite the Kim Lim Parking facility

Spanning a 3.2 hectare (7.9 acre) site, that three tower complex is slated to include a 28-storey office tower, around 560 rental apartments, affordable housing and around 1,100 student units managed by Scape, along with a 1.8 hectare public park.

Australia Gains Favour

The investment by Sime Darby comes as Australia regains favour among cross-border investors thanks to declining property values and rising cap rates.

Trades of property assets in the country totalled $13.1 billion in the first nine months of 2024, according to JLL, which represented a 23 percent increase in volume over the same period a year earlier.

Last month Singapore Land confirmed that, together with another unit of its parent firm, UOL Group, it had agreed to buy a half-stake in 388 George Street in Sydney’s central business district from Brookfield Asset Management for A$460 million.

Also in October, Singapore builders Metro Holdings and Sim Lian Group teamed up to acquire 1 Castlereagh Street, an office tower in Sydney’s central business district from Hong Kong’s Early Light International for A$196.4 million.