UPDATED: ASX-listed Australian Unity Office Fund has agreed to sell a grade-B office in Parramatta, NSW to local investor LC Partners for $66 million, reflecting a 5% premium.
The property at 32 Phillip Street, which has eight storeys of office space and 6,759 sqm of net lettable area, is located within the northern portion of the Parramatta commercial precinct.
The property was extensively refurbished in 2013 and is fully leased to GE Capital until the end of June 2023.
The building was independently valued at $62.75 million in June 2021.
Colliers agents John McCann and James Barber, along with Wally Scales from Knight Frank, conducted the sale.
“We took 32 Phillip Street Parramatta to market with Knight Frank, throughout the campaign process the property was extremely well received by the market and on close of the EOI we received several offers,” McCann said.
“The Parramatta CBD is still receiving very strong interest, but we have noticed a shift with Covid lockdowns, majority of the interested parties were local operators and if they were overseas parties, they had a local contact.”
“Working closing with the top bidders we exchanged unconditionally with local investor LC Partners, they already own property in the Parramatta CBD and have identified the future value in the location with the Powerhouse Museum currently under construction next to this attractive asset,” Scales said.
The fund intends to use the sale proceeds to reduce its borrowings and gearing initially, but also explore a potential on-market buyback or special distribution.
The deal is expected to settle on or before 20 January 2022.
The transaction is the latest in a string of office deals, following Singapore-listed CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s (CICT) purchase of two grade-A office buildings in Sydney for $330.7 million last week.
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and ASX-listed Charter Hall recently formed a joint venture to buy the 50 Marcus Clarke office building in Canberra’s CBD for $335 million.
Singapore-listed Keppel REIT purchased a grade-A office development in North Sydney for $327.7 million, while Dexus sold a Sydney CBD office to Charter Hall’s prime office fund for $385 million.
Last month, ISPT bought the headquarters of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for $35.8 million, while Cromwell Property Group bought a 24-storey office building in Brisbane’s CBD for $184.7 million.
This story was updated on 7 December 2021.
