Australian-listed Cromwell Property Group has exchanged contracts to buy a 35-storey office in Brisbane for $524.75m (US$353.6m), as the city’s office vacancy continues to fall.
Cromwell bought the 400 George Street property, located in the city’s North Quarter precinct, from US asset manager Blackstone and German group HSBC Trinkaus.
400 George Street (image: Cromwell / LinkedIn)
Constructed in 2009, the 43,978 sq.m. office has a 4.9-year weighted average lease expiry and is 99.8% occupied, according to a statement.
Brisbane’s office property market continues to favour investors, with the vacancy rate declining to 11.9% this year.
The deal comes after Cromwell sold its half-stake in Sydney’s Northpoint Tower for $300m recently, in addition to raising $407.5m from an institutional placement and security purchase plan.
“We continue to look to recycle capital from assets where we have already added significant value, as we have done with Northpoint Tower in North Sydney, to ones where we see new opportunities such as 400 George Street,” said Cromwell CEO Paul Weightman.
The property also features a retail precinct across the ground and podium levels, as well as an end-of-trip facility which provides showers, lockers and bike racks.
Australian commercial property investment has surged so far this year, up 13% year-on-year to US$8.4bn in Q2 2019, according to Real Capital Analytics.