QSuper has invested A$1bn (€620m) to buy an office complex and an apartment building in the US.
The A$95bn Australian superannuation fund has bought a fully-leased 70,000sqm Bellevue office property in Washington state and a Falls Creek apartment property in Virginia.
The Bellevue is a two-tower office leased to Microsoft, and Falls Creek contains 939 apartments and a four-storey garage.
The acquisitions follow the purchase of an office building in Austin, Texas last October, and bring QSuper’s total global real estate holdings to A$5.4bn.
QSuper head of funds management, Elizabeth Kumaru, said the Bellevue market, a submarket south of Seattle central business district, was experiencing unprecedented leasing activity driven by demand from large technology companies.
Only New York City, which had five times the office floor space, she said, had absorbed more new office tenants since 2010.
Kumaru said the Falls Creek buildings were located in a growth area, close to a proposed second headquarters for Amazon in Arlington Country, Virginia.
US property occupied by prime tenants with secure rental situations continued to be attractive to QSuper, she said
“Our approach to investment is to achieve diversification because that is the safest approach to producing strong, long-term returns for our members.”
