Singaporean investor pays $95m for North Sydney tower

Cladding will be removed from the 124 Walker St office building in North Sydney.

Asian investors are returning to office markets and Singapore’s Ho Group has grabbed a North Sydney block for about $95m in one of the latest plays.

The office block at 124 Walker St was sold by an unlisted Dexus trust that was picked up from AMP Capital and shows the big shift in values.

The Dexus Wholesale Australian Property Fund also disposed of Building 1 at the Connect Corporate Centre in Sydney and 12 Moore St in Canberra for about $90m in total.

An investor update said commercial property values softened substantially last year as bond rates trended up and there was a lack of confidence in office and retail markets from global capital.

A series of property revaluations and the sales resulted in a 4.9 per cent decrease in the portfolio’s value during the quarter but it has successfully slashed its office exposure and modernised its holdings.

The Moore St asset was picked up by a property funds manager for $50m and it is hoping to capitalise on the building’s position near the Canberra Centre.

The 12,000sq m building, which is largely occupied by the federal government, was valued at $61.5m last June.

A private player has quietly bought the Connect Corporate Centre 1 at 191 O’Riordan St in Mascot in Sydney for $40.54m.

That building, which sports good access to Sydney airport, has eight storeys with four levels of offices and four of parking. It spans 5640sq m of space on a 1945sq m site. It is occupied by multinational blue-chip tenants and has a weighted average lease expiry of 4.24 years.

The deal was handled by Colliers but they did not comment.

The largest sale was of the refurbished A-Grade building in North Sydney, which is set to benefit from the extension of Sydney’s metro line this year as it has good access to the Victoria Cross Station.

The 11,006sq m block houses 3P Learning and Shore Financial and will be leased up as the new owner looks to bolster the weighted lease term by income from under two years.

The sale was brokered by Stanton Hillier Parker’s Bevan Kenny and Shirley Fan but they declined to comment.

It was valued at about $120m in June and the deal shows the impact of ­vacancy in the building and of higher interest rates.