This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CENTURIA Property Funds has sold its 200 Creek St office tower in Brisbane to Sentinel Property Group, for a sum of $38.7 million.
The inner city ten-storey, A-grade comprises 7,603sqm of net lettable area across three ground floor tenancies and nine upper levels of office accommodation.
The announcement concludes months of speculation about talks between the groups for the Spring Hill asset, and continues a string of high-profile Brisbane office building transactions that began last year.
“We purchased the property in 2011, and since then we have carried out a series of upgrades and refurbishments designed to make the building more appealing to tenants,” Centuria’s chief executive officer of unlisted property, Jason Huljich said.
“As a result, the property was taken to market with an occupancy rate of over 95%, with a weighted average lease expiry of almost four years, which made it particularly attractive to buyers.
“During the past 18 months, our asset management team has done a phenomenal job, completing leasing transactions over approximately 45% of the net lettable area to quality tenants including the Queensland State Government and Ramsay Health Care,” he added.
Peter Court and Mike Walsh CBRE, along with JLL’s Seb Turnbull and Luke Billiau off JLL sold the property.
Court said Sentinel was joined by local and interstate investment groups in bidding for the tower.
Billiau said that in a market starved of opportunities it was not unexpected that an asset of this quality attracted a broad profile of capital.
“Whilst the headline vacancy figures remain elevated for the Brisbane CBD, 200 Creek Street had proven its lettability which was reflected in the depth of investors active,” he said.
The transaction follows a flurry of office market activity in 2016 in Brisbane. Abacus Property Group and Investec’s Australia Property Fund picked up the B-grade 26-storey 324 Queen Street for $132 million; Singaporean group ARA Asset Management acquired the HSBC Building at 300 Queen Street for $37.4 million from Unity Pacific; and AEP Investment Management took QIC’s 41 George Street for just under $160 million.
Huljich said he foresees good opportunities for commercial property investors in 2017.
“Looking forward into 2017, we are confident there will be some good opportunities in the major metropolitan markets – in particular Sydney and Melbourne, although we are also looking carefully at our options in Brisbane and Canberra.
“Our investment strategy has always been primarily asset-driven, which means we are open to all markets and properties where we see the potential to buy well, add value and achieve strong long term returns for our investors,” Huljich said.
Sentinel managing director Warren Ebert said the new fund’s strong buying activity in the office sector makes it among the most active of all national property funds in recent months.
“Our investors understand property and make their own decisions. With their support, we have bought very well in what were unloved sectors at the time, particularly in the retail sector with neighbourhood shopping centres and large format homemaker centres which are now back in favour.
“As evidenced by our recent buying, we are now pursuing the same first mover advantage in the office sector where we have a number of further acquisitions in the pipeline,” Ebert said.
Australian Property Journal
