The Doris Blackburn Building in Forrest is home to Services Australia. Photo: Doma Group.
An A-grade office building in Forrest that is home to Services Australia has been scooped up by a Brisbane property investor for $72 million.
The purchase of the Doris Blackburn Building at 18 Canberra Avenue is the second Canberra acquisition for Brisbane-based Sentinel Property Group, which bought Scarborough House in the Woden Town Centre for $83 million in 2021.
Charter Hall, which over the past few years has collected a swag of A-grade properties leased to the Federal Governmnet, offloaded the four-level building after buying it for $98.5m from Canberra property developer Doma Group in 2021.
Doma Group completed the purpose-built Forrest building in 2012.
The 9646 sqm office building on a 4475 sqm site is less than 500 metres from Parliament House and features 250 car parking bays below ground. It has a 5.5 star NABERS energy rating and a 5-star Green Star design.
Sentinel calculates that the deal came at 34 per cent below the replacement cost.
Sentinel CEO Warren Ebert said the group was able to secure the property following a $40-million capital raising.
“There continues to be strong investor demand for high-quality office assets,” he said.
Mr Ebert cited Canberra’s low vacancy rate, strong labour market, growing population and light rail extension as factors in the purchase.
“Canberra is Australia’s fourth largest office market and boasts the lowest vacancy rates across all capital cities of 8.3 per cent,” Mr Ebert said. “Over the next five years, 90 per cent of new office space currently in development is already pre-committed.
“With 2.9 per cent unemployment and a high 70.64 per cent workforce participation rate, Canberra continues to outperform the national average.
“The national capital’s population is projected to surge from 470,000 to 535,000 by 2034, driving demand for premium office space.
“There is also strong infrastructure investment with the ACT and the Federal governments having committed $1 billion to Canberra’s light rail expansion, with a proposed plan of Stage 2b for the rail to come within 200 metres of the Doris Blackburn Building.”
Sentinel first bought into the Canberra market in 2014, acquiring Tuggeranong Homeworld at Greenway for $31 million. In 2022, Sentinel sold the property to a private investor for $46m, almost 50 per cent more than it paid for the asset.
Charter Hall still boasts an impressive Canberra portfolio including the Louisa Lawson Building (Services Australia) in Tuggeranong; ActewAGL House in the city; 24 Wormald Street, Symonston (Attorney-General’s); 50 Marcus Clarke Street (Employment and Workplace Relations, Education and the Australian Electoral Commission) in the city; the Geoscience Australia Building in Symonston for which it paid a record $363.5m and the new Tax Office building under construction in Barton.
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