Bell Potter sets office leasing record for Sydney premises
Stockbroking firm Bell Potter has confirmed to Property Observer that it will lease two floors near the top of Aurora Place at 88 Phillip Street in the Sydney CBD.
The firm will reportedly pay gross rent in excess of $1,500 per square metre for about 3,000 square metres of office space in RBS Tower, as it is now known, setting a new record for an office leasing deal in Australia.
Bell Potter’s move to Aurora place from its existing premises at Level 33, Grosvenor Place at 225 George Street follows its merger with Southern Cross Equities in early July.
Southern Cross Equities already occupies two floors in Aurora Place.
Knight Frank is the appointed agent for the 41-storey building, which was designed by Renzo Piano and has a distinctive glass curtain wall.
Elsewhere in the building, Ray White agent Jeremy Piggin is currently offering space of 313 square metres at a gross rent of $1,460 per annum, equating to total annual rent of $456,980.
Piggin says he had a sublease listing in the building but has been unsuccessful to date in finding a tenant for the 39th floor space.
The latest report by The Australian follows an Australian Financial Review report in June that Bell Potter was set to take floors 37 and 38 in the building at a net rent in excess of $1,300 per square metre.
Also in June, executive recruitment firm Spencer Stuart paid a net rent of $1,125 for 1,200 square metres of space at 1 Macquarie Place in Sydney – the most expensive leasing deal of the quarter, according to Savills’ second-quarter Sydney office report.
During the June quarter five major leasing deals were signed with European commercial bank WestLB renewed its lease of 1,200 square metres of space at 7 Macquarie Place at a gross rent of $742 per square metre.
Aurora place, which has 49,000 square metres of net letable area, was acquired by the Korean Pension Scheme in December 2009 for $685 million.
The deal equated to just under $14,000 per square metre of net letable area at a yield of 6.7%.