The El Jannah at 422 Station St, Box Hill, has changed hands for $4.55m.
An El Jannah restaurant in Box Hill has sparked a six-way bidding war, selling for a drool-worthy $4.55m.
The Station St eatery attracted more than 230 buyer inquiries during its marketing campaign, while six bidders competed for the keys at an auction which resulted in a sale equating to a staggering $7022 a square metre based on the site’s 648sq m size.
Commercial restate agency JLL managed the listing that was offered with a 20-year lease.
JLL’s Dominic McGrath, who had oversaw the campaign with colleagues Romanor Falconer and MingXuan Li, said the new owner is an Australian-based private investor.
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Mr McGrath added that in addition to Victorian investors accounting for many of the potential purchasers, others had come from Brisbane and Sydney.
And a few offshore-based families with relatives living in Australia also expressed interest, he said.
In 1998, El Jannah’s founders Andre and Carole Estephan started their family-run Sydney restaurant which became famous for its charcoal chicken.
The company now has more than 60 venues across Victoria, NSW and the ACT.
In 2025, the US-based private equity firm General Atlantic acquired El Jannah in a transaction which valued the business at more than $800m.
A total of 232 buyers inquired about the restaurant while it was listed for sale.
El Jannah is known for its traditional Lebanese-style charcoal chicken garlic sauce, toum. Picture: El Jannah.
Mr McGrath said buyers had been drawn to the Box Hill restaurant because of its 20-year net lease, fixed annual rental growth and exposure to El Jannah’s expanding national network.
“The 5.38 per cent yield and land rate above $7000 per square metre show the value investors place on a well-structured lease in a tightly held metropolitan location,” he said.
The Box Hill deal follows sales of El Jannahs in Bayswater North, Belmont, St Albans, Niddrie, and Ferntree Gully across the past 24 months, as the brand expands further into Victoria.
Box Hill’s population is forecast to grow 239 per cent by 2056.
Mr Falconer said traditional fast-food investors had competed alongside private buyers looking to purchase their first takeaway eatery.
The Box Hill location was a major driver of interest, particularly within Melbourne’s Asian investor community, who know the Box Hill precinct well, Mr Li added.
The property returns an estimated net income of $245,000 every year, while its lease runs until February 2046 with two 10-year options to extend.
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