Parramatta faces challenges to public service office reign

Parramatta's reign as a mecca for attracting the public service sector is set to be tested, as Sydney’s largest suburban market battles with a dated stock profile and low future office supply.

A new research paper from Jones Lang LaSalle, “Parramatta – Reversing the prime-grade office slide”, described the suburban office sector as reaching a "critical point” with low future supply and an ageing stock profile. It cautioned that in "this public-sector dominated office market requiring strong sustainability benchmarks, there is an increased risk of flight from existing government tenants.”

Jones Lang LaSalle’s director of Parramatta and metropolitan office leasing William Tong said many government tenants were locked into long-term lease agreements, which had kept contiguous floor space scarce.

"This has acted as a smoke-screen for a low-demand environment, dampened by a lack of modern supply that would attract new tenants to Parramatta", he said.

To offset this increased risk of flight from government tenants, the research paper suggests that the best and fastest way to rejuvenate the Parramatta office precinct is to refurbish secondary grade assets.

Mr Tong said with new NSW Government environmental benchmarks in place for all government accommodation, Parramatta’s public sector-dominated office market needed to modernise or face the consequences in the future.

Assuming government leases from the 90s and 2000s were under 10-year lease expiries, he says, "there’s currently significantly elevated flight risk for a government tenanted, secondary-grade landlord".

JLL estimates there are 31 office properties within the Parramatta CBD that house at least one NSW state government tenant. Of those, it says, 22 buildings were considered secondary grade.

“It is critical for landlords to invest capital into their assets to improve their environmental credentials, as well as overall occupier amenity," said Mr Tong.