Canberra market gathers steam with $75m Tuggeranong sale

The Canberra office market is coming back to life as the year closes, with the Melbourne-based Juilliard Group swooping on a group of government-leased office buildings in Tuggeranong in the city’s south in a $75 million purchase.

The buildings were carved out of a Bank of Scotland International portfolio and their sale represents one of the final elements of those holdings, executives said.

In 2012, real estate private ­equity funds managed by the Blackstone Group and Morgan Stanley bought a $1.8 billion portfolio of distressed property loans from Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group’s international subsidiary BOS International.

Record had bought the 134 Reed St properties for $52.5 million in 2005

A year earlier, BOSI had sold $1.7 billion worth of Australasian property loans in separate tranches to a Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund and a consortium made up of Goldman Sachs and Brookfield Asset Management.

The Greenway campus-style development consists of a trio of buildings that have a net lettable area of 15,231sqm, parts of which were recently refurbished.

The offices are fully leased to the Federal Government.

BOSI’s exposure to the property came due to loans to the collapsed Record Realty Trust, which sat in the Allco Finance Group stable.

Record had bought the 134 Reed St properties for $52.5 million in 2005 and they were sought in the latest campaign by investors as the DHS has a lease until 2023.

The latest deal was brokered by CBRE’s Andrew Stewart and Scott Gray-Spencer on a yield of about 8%, but they did not comment.

Canberra properties are again changing hands at a greater pace. The listed Growthpoint Properties Australia last month bought a Canberra complex from British group Brompton Asset Management for $70 million.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property