If you consider the sites as part of a national retail network their real value comes down to the age old property mantra location, location, location! So in the face of that changing demand curve and the fall in private car ownership, why are urban service stations such hot property? That’s for those people who own a car, many Millennials are shunning personal car ownership entirely and relying on a blend of public transport, car share, ride hailing services like uber.Įarlier this year, AECOM’s Transport on Demand report predicted that every car share vehicle in Sydney could take up to 10 private vehicles off the road by 2036. What are cities doing to mitigate this cost? The types of fuels used by vehicles are changing too, as ownership of hybrid and electric vehicles grows.Ĭongestion is forecast to cost more than $50 billion by 2031. Modern vehicles continue to become more fuel efficient, as evidenced by government fuel duty revenue tracking downwards. Meanwhile, the demand side is evolving too. Having been involved in the environmental due diligence for many of these sites we know this current spate of acquisitions hasn’t finished yet. Recent industry consolidation has seen Viva Energy, BP and Caltex fight it out for the prime sites and many smaller family or independent operators cashing out. Today there are around 6,500 petrol stations and as the most recent transaction shows, (BP paid Woolworths almost $1.8 billion for 527 sites in December 2016) they are very hot property. To put that into context, Australia had a population of around 13 million in 1973 so that’s one service station for every 520 people – half of whom were probably too young to drive or didn’t own a car! Back in the 1970s, many Australians lived in the suburbs and commuted to work in their car, and there were around 25,000 service stations pumping petrol on virtually every major intersection.
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