This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
BEN Elias and Max Delemege's BMAX Property Group has snared a commercial office building in St Leonards for $7.4 million.
A private investor sold the property at 500 Pacific Highway through Jones Lang LaSalle’s North Sydney director of investment sales Su Cordiner and senior negotiator Nic Purdue.
The six storey commercial office building has a total lettable area of 1,848 sqm, 22 parking spaces and retail space on the ground floor.
Elias said BMAX Property Group is excited about this acquisition, which he believes is well positioned to take advantage of the positive market conditions in St Leonards.
Cordiner said the sale reflects a change in investor sentiment towards St Leonards.
Other recent investments in the area during the quarter include 39 Chandos St by Valad Property Group for $24.5 million, 34 – 36 Chandos St for $9.7 million by WRF Property and 657 Pacific Highway recently bought by the PFA Diversified Property Trust for $19.05 million.
“After a long period of hiatus, some market fundamentals have changed in St Leonards, both in terof vacancies and rental growth,” she said.
According to Cordiner, the renewed investor interest has been driven by the tightening of Sydney’s major CBD office markets, and the efforts by St Leonards’ three governing councils to improve the area as a business district.
“We are experiencing greater interest in the tenant market for opportunities in St Leonards. The fundamentals are moving in the right direction and the conditions are favourable for continued investment,” Cordiner concluded.
A recent, JLL Research show St Leonards has seen the vacancy rate drop to the lowest level recorded in the market for the last five years to 10.2% in the June quarter. More importantly, the prime market has seen a drop in vacancy to a low 4.1% in the June quarter.
St Leonards has also recorded the strongest prime gross effective rental growth of the three monitored North Shore markets during the June quarter (5.5%), while incentives have remained steady. This compares to an increase of 9.5% for the full 12 months to June.
Australian Property Journal
