CBD Commercial Property News

Manulife Real Estate, the global real estate arm of Canada’s biggest insurer, Manulife Financial, is looking to stamp its authority on the local property market with the purchase of the Myer headquarters at Victoria Harbour in the Docklands for close to $300 million.

Another wealthy Melbourne family has taken advantage of soaring prices for top commercial assets, with Morry Schwartz and his family selling a hotel and historic pub for close to $100 million combined.

The commitment of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda to its $2 billion projects in Sydney and Surfers Paradise is again in doubt, with the company offering to bundle up and sell its international apartment and hotel projects in a $6.6 billion mega-deal.

Chinese investors are targeting more towers in the heart of Sydney, with Hong Kong groups setting a cracking pace and mainland groups also in the mix, striking two property deals with a combined value of about $450 million.

High-end retailers are postponing their foray into Brisbane until the luxury Queen’s Wharf project is completed in the next decade. 

Sydney’s Pitt St Mall remains one of the world’s most expensive retail strips on which to lease a shop.

Cashed-up Chinese groups are pushing deeper into Sydney’s suburban offices and apartments with sites worth about $200 million changing hands, defying concerns about a year-on-year slump in Chinese outbound property investment in the third quarter.

Australia’s top banks are shifting their headquarters into glittering new skyscrapers along the eastern seaboard, setting commercial property markets alight at a time when they are also dramatically overhauling their workforces.

The $US20 billion ($26 billion) global co-working space operator WeWork sees “massive” opportunities for expansion locally after opening its first Melbourne office and is actively looking for more sites.