Dexus Property Group has set the commercial property markets in Australia and New Zealand alight this week, striking deals to sell about $800 million worth of property.
Capping the flurry of activity, Dexus has just put a Chinese group into due diligence on one of Sydney’s most soughtafter residential development sites, at 201 Elizabeth Street in the CBD.
The buyer is expected to convert the tower, co-owned by Dexus and Perron Group, into a $1 billion apartment project. The tower could change hands for close to $400m, sources said.
Dexus chief executive Darren Steinberg declined to comment on the details of the transaction.
“Unfortunately, it’s a very sensitive transaction because it’s not just one of ours. I’ve got a joint-venture partner, the Perron Group, in there. All I can really say is that it is an offshore group. There was very strong interest in that asset,” he said.
He added there was no certainty the transaction would go through.
Dexus has been on a selling spree. The group sold a site in Rosebery in Sydney’s southwest to Harry Triguboff’s Meriton for $190m on Wednesday.
Dexus also announced, on Wednesday, that it was selling a Sydney CBD office building at 50 Carrington Street. It is understood that Brookfield Office Properties is buying the property for about $88m via CBRE.
In New Zealand, German pension fund giant Deka Immobilien Investment also picked up the Lumley Centre from Dexus in a deal valuing the prize Auckland property at about $NZ146m ($133m).
The Australian group said yesterday that it had exchanged contracts to sell Lumley Centre at a 14.5 per cent premium, completing it’s exit from offshore markets.
Neil Brookes and Richard Horne of Knight Frank and Nick Hargreaves and Simon Storry of JLL acted for Dexus while Richard Butler advised Deka on the purchase.