Mapletree Sells Suburban Sydney Office Block to Growthpoint for $70M

Singapore’s Mapletree Investments has sold an office block in Sydney’s northern suburbs to Australian fund manager Growthpoint Properties for A$101.25 million ($70.2 million) as the unit of Temasek Holdings continues to liquidate a decade-old office venture.

The completed transaction for 78 Waterloo Road in Macquarie Park was confirmed in an announcement posted Tuesday by Dominic Ong, head of Asia capital markets at Knight Frank, which jointly marketed the property with Cushman & Wakefield. Mapletree had acquired the 2009-vintage building for A$106 million from Corval in 2015, per local media accounts, as one of 10 office assets seeding the firm’s MASCOT private trust.

“The sales process generated competitive bidding from nine qualified purchasers, representing close to A$1 billion of active capital,” Ong said. Mingtiandi reported in September last year that Mapletree had put 78 Waterloo on the market, at the time that the company closed a deal for the disposal of a Melbourne office asset.

Growthpoint now lists 78 Waterloo Road as the sole asset in a private fund called Growthpoint Macquarie Park Trust, with the company said last year to be aiming to raise A$60 million in investment to finance the property. Mapletree declined to comment on the deal when contacted by Mingtiandi.

Macquarie Park Milestone

Located within 400 metres (437 yards) of Macquarie Centre mall and Macquarie University metro station, 78 Waterloo provides 14,910 square metres (160,490 square feet) of net lettable area.

Growthpoint’s acquisition price translates to A$6,791 ($4,713) per square metre of NLA and gives the Melbourne-based firm control of an asset with a net passing income of A$7,416,215 a year.

Colliers described the 78 Waterloo deal as the largest single-asset transaction in Macquarie Park since 2021. The asset traded at 93.2 percent occupancy with a three-year weighted average lease expiry, according to the consultancy’s Quarterly Asset Class Snapshots. The property is soon to be fully occupied, with tenants having already committed to the vacant space, according to information provider Core Property. 

In a social media post promoting Growthpoint Macquarie Park Trust, Growthpoint said: “We believe this opportunity represents deep value and counter cyclical investing of a quality asset, and an ability to take advantage of the structural shift in the dynamic Macquarie Park market — NSW’s largest metropolitan office market.” The company said it expects to deliver distributions of 8 percent to 9 percent a year and an IIR of 15 percent to 18 percent for the investment. 

The eight-storey building was developed by Sydney-based Lipman, which later sold the project to fellow builder Stockland Corp. Stockland in turn sold the asset to Corval in 2013 on behalf of a club of wholesale investors for A$72 million.

MASCOT Expiry

Mapletree’s latest MASCOT divestment comes after the 2019-vintage trust sold 417 St Kilda Road in Melbourne to a local retail magnate in September for a price reportedly over A$90 million.

At the reported value the deal represents a more than one-third markdown from the A$145 million paid to acquire the 10-storey building in 2017. 

Mapletree has been marketing its MASCOT office portfolio after raising A$654 million in equity for what it described at the time as a A$1.4 billion portfolio. The Singaporean firm is facing the end of a seven-year term for the private vehicle.