Metro office sales hit six-year high, offshore interest credited
Offshore interest in Australia's office market has spilled into the metro market, with total sales hitting a six-year high last year.
Total metro office sales came in a $3.69 billion in 2013 - the highest level since 2007 when it reached $5.14 billion, according to the latest Colliers International first half Metropolitan Office Research & Forecast report. Overseas buyer accounted for a lion's share of that transaction activity, at $1.22 billion.
While the figure was inflated by the $413.19 million sale of 177 Pacific Highway to Singapore's Suntec REIT, the report noted that the influx of offshore capital "does indicate that offshore investors are willing to look beyond the CBD markets for more strategic opportunities".
Sydney metro continued to be at the epicentre of sales activity in 2013, with nearly $2 billion of office stock changing hands, while a 10 % spike in transaction volume saw Melbourne Metro experience a record year at just under $1 billion. With the exception of Adelaide, all markets improved on sales volumes from 2012.
Sales were up 3% in Brisbane and 365% in Perth, albeit from a low base. Highlighted in the report was the yield compression in the Sydney and Melbourne metro markets.
Average A grade yields in Melbourne compressed by 14 basis points to 8.93% in the six months to March, with the Outer East market narrowing by 25 basis points. Sydney yields tightened by 14 basis points to 8.20%.
Yields in Brisbane and West Perth we're flat at 8.50% and 9.2%, respectively.
Colliers associate director of research, Anneke Thompson expect overseas buyers to again feature prominently in the metro market this year, "as players in the hotly contested CBD markets search for more generous yields further afield".
But Colliers managing director of capital markets and investment services, John Marasco, cautioned that not all metropolitan markets would be able to "absorb this demand however, as many have a distinct lack of institutional-grade stock".
“In Sydney, the North Sydney market has already proven itself a drawcard for both local institutional and offshore demand, while in Brisbane the Urban Renewal precinct is and will remain the preferred metro location for institutional investors,” Mr Marasco said.
“In Melbourne, St Kilda Road is one of the few metro markets with stock of sufficient scale and quality to attract CBD-type capital.”
Unlisted retail funds were expected to be one of the first groups with mandates to acquire property in that precinct, he added.
Colliers research also found that private buyers made up the bulk of the buyers across all markets and that institutional investors were only net buyers in Brisbane and Adelaide.