Development sites are the target for small to medium-sized investors as they seek out higher returning assets at a time of record low interest rates.
In the past year there were more than $2.5 billion worth of transactions and already the new year has started at a frenetic pace with about $200 millon worth of properties set to hit the market in the coming week.
Nicholas Heaton, the newly-appointed head of private clients and metropolitan investment properties NSW at CBRE said his firm had identified a niche market with private clients that was previously reserved for institutional clients and the "results are showing".
"Last year the NSW Metropolitan Investment sales team marketed and sold $2.5 billion worth of investments properties and development sites on behalf of private clients, selling a property every second day of the year, "Mr Heaton said.
"Regardless if the property is worth $1 million or $500 million it requires a global approach to marketing to achieve the highest and best price. If you don't have a global strategy you are cutting your target market in half and potentially leaving money on the table."
Mr Heaton said the group has 20 properties going to market next week for a variety of private clients with a total transaction value of over $250 million with some of the more notable campaigns being a deceased estate for a development site in Cremorne Point with uninterrupted views of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
"We expect to have interest from buyers based across the globe but they will have to compete aggressively to beat the more established local developers," Toby Silk of CBRE North Shore said.
The interest extends across the city where CBRE City Fringe & Eastern Suburbs are taking the Prodive building in Coogee to market.
"The property faces north and sits on top of Coogee beach with Prodive on a 10-year lease extending their tenure past their current 40 years in the building," Stephen Grant at CBRE Eastern Suburbs said.
The wave of buyer interest is expected in the upcoming auction of the beachfront property at Coogee occupied by one of the area's longest running businesses.
CBRE's Simon Lytton and Nicholas Heaton have been appointed to sell the 27 Alfreda Street property, which has been occupied by scuba diving business Prodive for more than 40 years.
The two-storey circa 1940s building comprises ground floor retail and first-floor office space.
New five-year leases are in place over both floors, providing a passing net income of $288,000 per annum.
"This is an unprecedented opportunity to secure a trophy asset in one of Sydney's most tightly held beachside locales," Mr Lytton said.
"The suburb is tightly held and freehold commercial buildings of this size are rarely offered to the market. Given the significant commercial stock withdrawal in the east, we expect significant interest in the sale campaign."
In addition, the property has a B2 Local Centre zoning, providing prospective purchasers the chance to further develop the property in the future subject to the relevant planning approvals.