CBRE GI continues Australian office drive with AUD250m Melbourne asset

CBRE Global Investors has bought an office tower in Melbourne for AUD250m (€166m) in an off-market deal.

The fund manager purchased the building at 120 Spencer Street, next to Spencer Street Station in the central business district, from Anton Capital, which had owned it for only 16 months.

Anton Capital paid AUD165m in April last year, repositioning the tower and bringing in new tenants before putting it back on the market.

Despite its anchor tenant, energy company AGL, relocating to a new building in neighbouring Docklands, 120 Spencer Street today is 90% occupied.

IPE Real Estate confirmed the transaction with a source close to CBRE Global Investors.

The transaction, which closed at a 6% yield, reflects the heated market in Australian capital cities for commercial real estate. Rents are rising, with strong demand from tenants seeking space.

CBRE Global Investors beefed up its Australian presence late in 2014 when it recruited Andrew Glass, who had worked for Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, to head up its Australian real estate team as managing director.

Glass oversaw investments for GIC in both Australia and South Korea. His first investment in Australia for CBRE Global Investors was the purchase in January 2016 of South Wharf Tower in Melbourne, in joint acquisition with Universal-Investment from the open-ended real estate fund Deka-ImmobilienGlobal.

South Wharf Tower was purchased on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), one of Germany’s largest institutional investors, for about AUD150m.