BRISBANE'S Nestle Inn Village caravan park, which recorded a million-dollar profit last year, has sold at auction for $9.225 million.

The 7ha tourist and relocatable home park was snapped up by Brisbane-based Harvest Property and will continue in its current role.

Conveniently located at Tingalpa and just 11km from the city centre, the three-star property went under the hammer as part of an asset unloading following the closure of Mariner Coastal Investment Trust.

"There was a lot of interest in the park," CB Richard Ellis real estate sales agent Andrew Jackson told Caravanning News. "We had nine registered bidders and there was a lot of activity for an auction. There were about 40 people in the room."

Harvest Property director Todd Pepper said: "Whilst the site does have future redevelopment potential, Harvest's objective is to enhance the utilisation of the site for its current purpose.

“We were fortunate to be in a position to bid under auction conditions having secured both the equity and debt prior to auction.

"An asset of this nature with such strong income and redevelopment potential was surprisingly well supported by the small syndicate of private investors. Direct investment in high yielding assets is certainly gaining momentum as the market comes out of this cycle."

Mr Pepper said home parks like Nestle Inn Village provided affordable housing in its purest form ... "and we believe the site has more capacity than is currently being utilised to provide additional affordable housing options".

Nestle Inn has a long and successful trading history, with permanent site occupancy rates in excess of 90 percent and tourism sites averaging around 50 percent.

Park Management Services, a joint venture between Harvest and Sydney-based manager Trent Ottawa, will be appointed to manage the park on behalf of the investors to ensure the property's potential is maximised.

Mr Ottawa said: "The joint venture will look to acquire more properties of a similar nature to Nestle Inn in metropolitan areas that combine long-term revenue generating potential in areas that have a key requirement for affordable housing solutions."

Mr Jackson said the park sector was currently attracting much attention because they offered good cash flow business and generally good landholdings.

Nestle Inn Village provided a high cash flow business, underpinned by a consistent high occupancy rate.

There was also the opportunity to "drive the existing revenue further through the reconfiguration of the permanent portion of the park, plus annual tariff and rental increases".

"The location of this park to major infrastructure, local services and the Brisbane CBD will always underpin the demand and value," he added.

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