Australian property investor Charter Hall has acquired a A$363m (€235m) office building in the national capital from Real IS.

Three Charter Hall funds will share ownership of Geoscience Australia, a complex located at Symonston in Canberra.

Two listed Charter Hall funds - the Charter Hall Social Infrastructure Fund and Charter Hall Long WALE Reit - will each pay A$90.9m for a 25% stake in the complex. A Charter Hall unlisted fund will own the remaining 50%.

German investor Real IS, which bought the building in late 2006 for A$234m, is also selling another Canberra asset, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) headquarters which is expected to fetch about A$300m.

Charter Hall is reported to be also looking to buy the ATO building.

David Harrison, Charter Hall managing director and group, said: “Charter Hall sees Geoscience Australia as a compelling life sciences investment in a strongly performing Canberra market.”

Harrison said the Canberra market offered government tenant covenants, attractive yields and yield growth, which provided resilient investment outcomes for the group’s investors.

The building is fully leased to Geoscience Australia, a federal government agency.

Charter Hall Long WALE Reit said its share of the transaction would be predominantly funded from the sale proceeds of the industrial and logistic facility at Hoppers Crossing in Victoria. The asset was sold for A$74m.

Charter Hall Social Infrastructure fund will finance its acquisition using debt.

Charter Hall has emerged as the single largest commercial investor in Canberra having accumulated at least A$1bn worth of assets in the past two years.

Before Geoscience Australia, its last acquisition was 50 Marcus Clarke Circus, bought in partnership with Singapore’s GIC for A$335m last December.

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