Office Investment

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Sentinel Property Group has purchased a fully leased office building in Cairns for $8.5 million, marking its second investment in the North Queensland city.
The 139 Grafton Street property comprises a four-level commercial office building with a total net lettable area of 2,453 sqm.
The property is fully leased to two tenants, Queensland Health on a new five-year lease expiring in 2022, and a well-established medical office.
Sentinel purchased DFO Cairns retail complex last year. Its property portfolio in North and Central Queensland comprises a free-standing Big W in Atherton, a neighbourhood shopping centre and industrial property in Townsville, the Port of Airlie Maritime Terminal at Airlie Beach, two neighbourhood shopping centres in Emerald and seven retail, industrial, office and land holdings in Mackay.
Sentinel managing director Warren Ebert said the Grafton Street property was underpinned by solid government tenants and is well positioned within the Cairns CBD.
“Cairns is a market that we know very well and has been a major focus for us in successfully turning around the DFO Cairns centre over the past year through continual improvements and investment,” Ebert said.
The Brisbane-based group says it has confidence in the North Queensland economy and its future growth prospects.
“We see a lot of upside in the Cairns market on the back of its resurgent tourism sector and more than $20 billion of planned infrastructure and development projects that will drive further tourism and economic growth.”
These projects include the expansion of the Cairns airport, upgrade of the Port of Cairns, the Ella Bay Integrated Resort Development and Rio Tinto’s Amrun Bauxite Project among others.
The Cairns office property is the sixth asset for the Sentinel Regional Office Trust, which since October 2016 has acquired more than $188 million of properties nationally. The Sentinel Regional Office Trust has a current net distribution of 9.50% pa (paid monthly).
Its other assets include office buildings in Darwin and Casuarina in the Northern Territory, an office property on the fringe of the Brisbane CBD, and office properties in Port Macquarie and Newcastle in New South Wales.
Ebert said the Trust would continue to look at more office acquisitions in regional locations.
“We have a number of further regional office acquisitions in the pipeline, providing diversity of income both geographically and by tenant, in line with our proven opportunistic buying strategy in sectors and locations yet to be fully identified by others.”
Sentinel Property Group has a total national portfolio of more than 40 retail, industrial, office, land, tourism infrastructure and agribusiness assets across Australia with a total value that is more than $1 billion.
Late in 2016, the group purchased the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/expert-insights/investing/61444-sentinel-acquires-port-hedland-boulevard-shopping-centre-in-wa" target="_blank">Port Hedland Boulevard Shopping Centre</a> in Western Australia for $17.6 million from a private vendor.
It said the company has sold a total of 15 properties for $306.46 million at an average Internal Rate of Return of 26.60% across its national portfolio since its inception in 2010.
 
 
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Sentinel acquires Cairns office asset with government tenant for $8.5 million

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The returns from Australian office assets in 2016 were well above the historical benchmark, according to a new report by leading property services firm JLL.
Investors are now accepting that returns for core real estate will be broadly between 6.50 percent and 8 percent, said the Australian Office Investment Review and Outlook. 
Investor mandates were more diverse in 2016, with a movement of capital into suburban office markets due to the positive market fundamentals. 
JLL recorded $5.1 billion of transactions across non-CBD office markets, or 37 percent of total office sales in 2016. Historically, suburban markets have only accounted for around 30 percent of transaction volumes per annum.
Head of Office Investments – Australia, Rob Sewell said the firm’s analysis is pointing to another good year of returns for the Australian office market after 2016 levels were above historical benchmarks. 
“Investment mandates are diverse and over the first part of 2017 we have capital ready to be deployed across the risk spectrum,” said Sewell. 
JLL’s area-weighted Total Return Index (TRI) for CBD office markets increased by 12.6 percent in 2016. 
“We are currently in the midst of an unprecedented liquidity cycle, which is being expressed both by high levels of transaction volumes and the number of bidders on major assets.
“Total office volumes last year were curtailed by a lack of available product. Nevertheless, 2016 still ranked as the third highest year of record for volumes at $14.46 billion. The number of under-bidders on campaigns in 2016 across geographies were at elevated levels.  
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/04/4/Apr5CommPropChart1.png" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
 <img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/04/4/Apr5CommPropChart1.png" alt="">
He said new pricing levels would increase vendor motivation, while liquidity would create an opportunity to divest large less liquid assets.
Offshore investors accounted for 42 percent of total office transactions in 2016 at $6.19 billion, with Chinese, Singaporean and US investors dominating the market.  
“The Australian office sector remains a beneficiary of the great portfolio tilt to real estate and the Asia Pacific region,” said JLL’s head of International Investments – Australia, Simon Storry.
“Our review of the spread between target and current allocations by offshore investors shows potential sources of capital in 2017 include South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany,” said Storry.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/images/2017/04/4/Apr5CommPropChart2.png" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
<img src="https://www.urban.com.au/images/2017/04/4/Apr5CommPropChart2.png" alt=""> 
JLL’s Australian head of Research, Andrew Ballantyne said investors navigating the Australian office investment landscape have opportunities to satisfy diverse mandates. 
“Sydney and Melbourne can be classified as the high growth markets. Asset pricing is reflective of the strong rental growth outlook with prime net effective rents projected to rise by 34.9 percent in the Sydney CBD and by 18.7 percent in the Melbourne CBD from 2017 to 2019.”
“Brisbane and Perth offer counter-cyclical opportunities and are considered to the cheap side of fair value markets. Yield spreads to Sydney and Melbourne have widened beyond historical benchmarks and new sources of capital are exploring opportunities to gain exposure to a potential market recovery.
“Real estate investors have shown a bias for low risk assets. Adelaide and Canberra are the epitome of low risk with the volatility of returns typically lower through the cycle,” concluded Ballantyne. 
 
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Australian office investment returns above historical benchmark: JLL

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Increasing capital flows into Australia's major office markets in 2016 has resulted in competition for quality assets heating up, with property experts predicting continued yield compression and rising sales volumes in the second half of the year.
Competition for prime metropolitan office investments in the eastern seaboard markets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane is rising among large offshore investors, according to Colliers International research.
The biggest jump in metropolitan office investment volumes to date in 2016 has been recorded in New South Wales, with $2.3 billion of sales recorded in Sydney’s metropolitan market year-to-date compared to $1.8 billion in the Sydney CBD. 
“Whilst there is still healthy investor appetite for CBD assets with four months to run in the calendar year, the narrowing gap between CBD and metro investor volumes points to increasing attention being paid to non-CBD office assets,” said John Marasco, Colliers International managing director of Capital Markets &amp; Investment Services.
“Analysis of sales volumes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, when comparing metro office to CBD office markets, sees investment levels weighted towards CBD markets. However, as CBD office yields have compressed sharply, capital has begun to shift to metropolitan office investment in 2016.
“The focus and competition for prime office grades is moving into the metro markets. The recent tussle for control of GPT’s metropolitan office fund, which contained seven A Grade fully leased assets, is a sign of the sentiment to come for securely leased, high quality metropolitan assets, which is likely to lead to a further sharpening of yields.”
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<img src="/images/2016/09/12/OfficepropFundamentals.png" alt="">
 Luke Dixon, Colliers International director of Research, said the combination of lower vacancy, falling supply and higher total returns would typically correspond with a similar fall in initial yields and tight pricing. However, in the case of A Grade metropolitan office, yields had remained firmly higher relative to their CBD counterparts and compressed at a slower rate over the past three years. 
“CBD A Grade yields have compressed by over 120 basis points across the east coast, whereas east coast metropolitan A Grade yields only compressed by 60 basis points,” he said. 
“A significant factor in the strong performance of A Grade CBD yields has been the volume of domestic and offshore capital pursuing opportunities. 
“Enquiry volumes for investment sales of CBD assets, is almost double that seen in metropolitan sales campaigns. This weight of capital can in part can be explained by the volume of stock available between the two markets. 
“A Grade office in the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane accounts for a total of 11.7 million square meters versus 6 million square meters in their metropolitan counterparts, reducing the available pool of assets for investors.
<a href="/images/2016/09/12/MetrovsCBD.png" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
 <img src="/images/2016/09/12/MetrovsCBD.png" alt="">
“CBD ownership is highly concentrated amongst institutional owners, with over 50% of Premium and A Grade CBD stock owned by longer term investors such as super funds, REITs and wholesale funds. Metropolitan markets are more diverse in their ownership, with higher numbers of private investors who may be more motivated to sell as investor demand for high quality metropolitan office assets increases”.
“However, the sharp compression of CBD office yields has seen capital begin to shift to metropolitan office in 2016.”
A comparison of offshore and domestic transactions in these key metropolitan office markets points to momentum tipping back towards offshore investors in 2016. Significant metropolitan transactions year to date have been led by offshore investors such as Deutsche Bank, Ascendas and Blackrock.
“Total investment volumes are still heavily skewed towards domestic investors, with local knowledge and teams on the ground giving them a strategic edge on offshore competitors,” Marasco said. “However, with the increasing maturity of Asia Pacific and European investors in the Australian market we anticipate rising levels of offshore interest in the medium term.”
“Yield spreads will prove too attractive, and metropolitan spreads relative to CBD spreads will narrow under the weight of increasing investment.
“Based on the rising volume of investment sales in metropolitan office markets, and strong fundamentals supporting rental growth and valuation uplift, we anticipate strong investor activity in the metropolitan office market resulting in capital rates across these markets compressing sharply over the next 12 to 18 months.”
<a href="/images/2016/09/12/MetrovsCBDoutlook.png" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a>
 <img src="/images/2016/09/12/MetrovsCBDoutlook.png" alt="">
Competitive acquisition conditions in major eastern seaboard markets are already being seen. The recent tussle for control of GPT’s metropolitan office fund, which contained seven A Grade fully leased assets, is a sign of the sentiment to come for securely leased, high quality metropolitan assets. 
According to Colliers International’s new H2 2016 Metro Office Research &amp; Forecast Report, rental growth has been seen in most major metropolitan office markets this year, with demand for space generally improving, resulting in decreased vacancy.
The report found residential conversion remained a key issue in most markets, in particular those markets which were not protected with a commercial zonings.
Residential conversion-driven withdrawal is shrinking the pool of available metropolitan assets,” Dixon said.
 
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Office markets on the eastern seaboard heat up on investment inflows 

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Charter Hall Group's Direct Office Fund (DOF) has launched a new round of equity raising.
DOF is an unlisted property fund chasing Australian office properties and currently offers nine fully leased office buildings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth valued at over $842 million. 
The current distribution yield for the fund is 6.6 percent per annum.
Steven Bennett, fund manager of DOF said the fund is targeting to grow its property portfolio to over $1.2 billion.
“DOF has provided investors with annualised distributions of 7.5 cents per unit paid quarterly plus strong capital growth to date, which is forecast to grow to an annualised 7.75 cents per unit for the year ending 30 June 2017," he said.
"Sydney and Melbourne office markets are forecast to have the highest growth rates and which comprise over 70 percent of the Funds’ assets by value."
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