Factors Influencing Commercial Property Investment Suitability for Coffee Shop Development in Melbourne: A Case Study of 280-282 Springvale Road

Selecting suitable premises is a high-stakes decision for café investors, particularly as rising rents, wages and input costs compress margins in Australia’s hospitality sector. Drawing on retail location theory, real estate investment decision-making and the servicescape perspective, this study examines how location accessibility, property and site characteristics, and cost/value perceptions shape the perceived investment suitability of commercial property for coffee shop development. Using 280-282 Springvale Road, Springvale (Melbourne) as an embedded case, survey data were collected from 217 private property investors, current and prospective café operators, real estate agents and valuers, and hospitality business brokers, and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), supplemented by independent-samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA. The results show that location accessibility (β = 0.384, p < .001), property and site characteristics (β = 0.259, p = .003) and cost/value (β = 0.131, p = .004) all positively influence commercial property investment suitability, with the model explaining 48.6% of its variance. Accessibility is the dominant driver, led by proximity to residential catchments and passing traffic, whereas cost/value exerts a smaller but significant effect. Perceived suitability also differs by professional role, experience, prior hospitality investment and budget; notably, respondents who had previously invested in hospitality were considerably more cautious. The findings extend location and real estate decision research to small-format strip-shop property and provide practical guidance for café investors, landlords and local government in Melbourne’s middle-ring activity centers.