Singapore’s OUE REIT in Exclusive Talks for $240M Stake in Sydney’s Salesforce Tower

OUE REIT is in exclusive talks to acquire a stake in Sydney’s Salesforce Tower, according to an announcement by the manager of the Singapore-listed trust on Thursday, with local news reports citing a value of A$1.8 billion ($1.2 billion) for the property. 

The Singapore-listed REIT is said to be taking a 20 percent stake in Sydney’s second tallest building, which would translate to an A$360 million exit for prospective vendor Mitsubishi Estate, which has been marketing its holding in the 56-storey tower since 2024.

“While Singapore remains OUE REIT’s core market, the Manager has also been exploring opportunities in key gateway cities, including Sydney, Australia, which offer strong real estate fundamentals and stable long-term growth prospects,” the manager of OUE REIT announced. “In this regard, while the Manager is in exclusivity with Mitsubishi Estate Asia Pte Ltd with respect to the acquisition of a partial stake in Salesforce Tower, Sydney, negotiations between the parties are currently still ongoing and parties have yet to enter into any binding agreement for the acquisition.”

OUE REIT’s announcement comes as Sydney’s commercial real estate market showed signs of revival in the second half of 2025, with a number of Singapore investors picking up properties in the city during the year’s final months. 

Fully Occupied Offices

The directors of OUE REIT characterised the prospective investment as in line with the trust’s mission to deliver returns for its unitholders, while cautioning that no binding agreement has been signed. The manager indicated that an eventual deal is not yet certain and that further updates would be provided as appropriate. 

Designed by Foster and Partners, the Salesforce Tower’s 53 office floors provide 59,916 square metres (644,930 square feet) of gross floor area, plus a ground floor lobby and a 1,996 square metre retail plaza.

Having earned a 6-star rating under Australia’s NABERS regiment for green buildings, in addition to its namesake tenant, the tower is home to Bain & Company, Accenture, TikTok and JLL. A CBRE document from last year cites a weighted average lease expiry term of around 6.9 years and 99 percent occupancy. 

In March of last year, Mitsubishi Estate, which had taken a 30 percent stake in the Lendlease-developed project in 2016, sold a 10 percent stake in the Salesforce Tower to Japan’s Odakyu Electric Railway for an undisclosed sum. Should the OUE REIT transaction be consummated, Mitsubishi Estate will have fully exited its stake in the 263-metre tall office building. 

Should OUE REIT acquire its stake at the estimated A$360 million price, it would be paying the equivalent of A$29,073 per square metre of net lettable area in the SalesForce Tower. 

Since mid-2025 China’s Ping An Real Estate, which took a half-stake in the SalesForce Tower, alongside Lendlease and Mitsubishi Estate, has been marketing its 50 percent holding, after having seen efforts to exit the project in early 2023 fizzle. 

Sydney Favoured

OUE REIT, which currently has six properties in its portfolio, has been a Singapore-only vehicle since it sold Shanghai’s Lippo Plaza for $236 million at the end of 2024. 

The trust’s pursuit of Sydney opportunities follows a string of Singaporean acquisitions in the city in recent months, including SGX-listed Keppel REIT teaming up with Warburg Pincus-backed MA Financial in October to buy the Top Ryde Shopping Centre in the city for A$394 million.

That deal was announced just days after the REIT’s sponsor, Keppel Capital, revealed to Mingtiandi that a private fund under its management had acquired the Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney, with that deal valued at A$65.5 million.

In July of last year, Singapore hotel firm Furama agreed to buy a hospitality property near Darling Harbour for A$68 million, and just last month Singapore sovereign fund GIC teamed up with Brookfield Asset Management in an A$4 billion bid for National Storage, Australia’s largest self-storage provider.