Call us today

Vol 11. No.215

Landsburys Independent Accreditation Reports

Economic Overview

	Current	+/-	Movement
$AUS/$US	100.37	-0.63
Cash Rate	4.75	Steady
90 Day Bill	5.04	+0.03
10 Year Bond	5.383	+0.088
ASX 200	4699.8	-40.9

New South Wales Property

• Lend Lease has released plans for the first three large commercial building in Sydney’s $6 billion Barangaroo project.
• Public exhibition has begun for C4, a proposed 180 metre building designed by architects Ivan Harbour and Richard Rogers. C4 will have a 6 star green star rating and comprise 2,000m² floor plates designed so companies can occupy multiple floors with voids between levels. C4 will also include more than 10,000m² of retail space and a childcare centre.
• Lend Lease is also pressing forward with amendments to some aspects of its original proposal that will increase the height of its northern tower to 209 metres and add a 40 level hotel on the pier.

• A private investor has bought an office property located at 2-4 Old Castle Hill Road in Castle Hill at auction for $4.5 million on a yield of 9%.
• Receivers and managers Korda Mentha sold the property, which was owned by Mileto House.
• The 1,735m² building ($2,594/m²) is 90% occupied by long-term tenants.

• Stockland has bought a 20,850m² property on the corner of Byron Road and Military Road in Yennora.
• The vacant property includes a 6,728m² building that was purpose-built for the vendor, the Australian Wool Testing Authority.

• A self-manager super fund investor and private company have bought an industrial property located at 11 Sheridan Close in Milperra for $4.4 million.
• The property includes a 2,918m² building ($1,508/m²) that was previously leased to Coopers Transport for $380,000 a year net. It will be leased to a business related to the purchaser.
• Bankminster Property Trust No 11 previously owned the site. The trust merged with Century Funds Management in 2004.

• An automotive franchise has bought an industrial complex at 76 Regentville Road in South Penrith for $1.42 million.
• The property was purchased before auction and comprises three vacant units and one tenanted unit that generates $52,400 a year in rental income.

Queensland Property

• AMP Capital is reportedly in negotiations to develop an office high rise tower on the former Austcorp Vision site in Brisbane.
• AMP’s Select Property Portfolio 3 is believed to be working with the site owners, Billbergia Group to advance approvals for the development.
• The Vision Tower site has been earmarked as having the potential to hold Brisbane’s tallest residential and commercial tower, however sources suggest two separate towers may be built on the site.

Victoria Property

• Linfox Property Group has sold an industrial property at 20 Palmers Road, Truganina in Melbourne for $5.77 million.
• The property sold at auction to a local private developer.

• An owner-occupier has bought an industrial office and warehouse facility located at 9-12 Ovens Court in Sunshine for $2 million at auction.
• The 2,274m² building ($880/m²) includes a 727m² canopied area.

• A joint venture group has bought a residential development site at 84 Roseneath Street in Clifton Hill for $6 million.
• Podco and Sydney-based Pembroke Developments bought the 3,081m² site ($1,947/m²) that includes approved plans and a permit for medium to high-density residential development.

• A whole strata office floor has sold at 313 Little Collins Street in Melbourne for $570,000.
• The level 5 property was initially passed in at auction, before a private investor negotiated a deal.
• The floor was offered for sale with a 90-day settlement.

National Property

• Sources suggest that Charter Hall has expressed interest in Woolworths’ $900 million portfolio of shopping centres. Lend Lease and Israel based multinational real estate investment company Gazit Globe are also interested in the portfolio.
• The portfolio comprises 34 sub-regional and neighborhood shopping centres anchored by Woolworths’ businesses.
• The marketing agents are expecting 10 serious bids by the end of this week.

• The four major banks have reduced their exposure to the commercial property sector by $20.7 billion in the past 12 months citing reasons such as weaker fundamentals, poor debt serviceability and shortages of credit.
• Alternative sources of funding have also dissipated as foreign banks such Royal Bank of Scotland and ING have retreated and second tier lenders like Suncorp and Macquarie Bank have reduced funding todevelopers.
• Westpac has reduced its property book by $8.1 billion to $52.5 billion in the year to September 30 and is looking to reduce it further.
• National Australia Bank has reduced its exposure to commercial property by $8.4 billion since March to $62.2 billion.
• ANZ Banking Group has reduced its exposure to property by $600 million to $27.7 billion.

• Industry superannuation fund backed property group ISPT is in the market for major retail property assets after raising nearly $500 million in new equity.
• The group is in the process of buying a 25% share in Westfield Doncaster.

• Singapore property company Ascendas is looking for $300 million in office properties in the Australian market place.
• They are searching for relatively high yielding B grade assets on city fringes.

Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan office update (AFR Pg.61)

• Industry sources suggest that the Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan office markets are in a good position to benefit from limited development activity as a result of the Global Financial Crisis.
• Increased tenant demand in metropolitan areas in addition to reasonably low vacancy rates and limited A grade stock could deliver strong rental growth.
• The vacancy rate in the Sydney metropolitan office market is recently increased slightl;y to be at 9.9% after 80,674m² of new supply of which two thirds is leased or pre committed.
• The Melbourne vacancy rate has fallen to 7.6% and could drop as low as 5.5% by the end of 2011. 70,000m².