This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ELEVEN strata office owners have joined forces to sell the vacant former Qantas headquarter in Melbourne’s CBD to a Singapore’s Lian Beng for $51.5 million.
Colliers International’s Trent Hobart, Daniel Wolman, Matt Stagg and Oliver Hay, along with property manager Melcorp’s Charles Vraca, negotiated the deal on behalf of the 11 separate owners across 18 separate contracts.
The property was snapped Singaporean Exchange-listed Lian Beng following an international expressions-of-interest campaign, which closed late last month.
Lian Beng chairman and managing director Ong Pang Aik said the acquisition is in line with one of the group’s core business activities.
“The group views the proposed acquisition as a good opportunity to participate in a strategic investment of the property, where the group can derive rental returns which will be added to the earnings of the group,” Ong said.
Located at 50 Franklin St, the 18-level building comprises 11,447 sqm of net lettable area on a substantial 2,213 sqm site. The major tenant Salmat is expected to vacate in February 2017.
Hobart said the sale rate of $4,500 per sqm in a sign of strength in the Melbourne investment market.
Stagg said the sale demonstrates the ability for strata owners to achieve a premium price for their assets when they work together and sell their property as a whole,
“It was an extraordinarily rare opportunity to be able to market such a flexible blank canvas in the heart of Melbourne’s thriving education precinct,” Hobart said.
“We were blown away by the interest in this asset, with more than 170 enquiries from parties from all over the globe, including offers from student accommodation developers, hotel developers, schools, universities, residential developers and office investors,” he added.
“Being right in the epicentre of what will become the most densely populated precinct in the world, and with the major universities and higher education institutions growing at a speculated 20 per cent per annum, this precinct will be undersupplied for office and education uses,” Wolman said.
Hobart said the property presented a major value-add opportunity to the buyer, Lian Beng.
“The company realised the potential of a vacant office building in this precinct, at a time of growing demand in the international education sector and falling yields for commercial offices.
“Lian Beng is a strong believer in the Melbourne real estate market, with this acquisition being its third in Melbourne. Colliers International is very pleased to have negotiated what is Lian Beng’s largest worldwide transaction outside of Singapore,” he continued.
Hay said there was been a resurgence in demand from Singaporean clients in recent months, particularly for value-add and investment properties.
“Colliers has now transacted more than $150 million in the past month to Singaporean clients,” he said.
Colliers Edward Knowles will be handling the release of the building, which is expected to attract a wide range of interest from the education sector.
Australian Property Journal
