Cromwell sells in Sydney buys in Canberra

Cromwell sells in Sydney, buys in CanberraThe Cromwell Property Group has sold Bligh House at 4-6 Bligh Street in Sydney’s CBD for $68 million.The office tower was been purchased by the US$8 billion Real Estate Capital Asia Partners IV fund, managed by SC Capital Partners Group.Cromwell purchased the asset in 2014 for $53 million as part of a $405 million NSW government property portfolio acquisition. “It is a trophy asset in the heart of the CBD and we had been actively considering a range of value-adding opportunities before taking the asset to market for sale,” says Cromwell’s CEO Paul Weightman.Weightman said the Group would continue to look for opportunities to improve its $2.2 billion portfolio of direct property assets.Sydney has recorded its strongest year for office investment in 2015, with Savills reporting $5.8 billion of office transactions in the 12 months to June 2015. This is up 78 percent from $3.34 billion in the previous 12 months. Savills says institutions remain the most “aggressive investors”, purchasing $3.1 billion (or 54 per cent) in Sydney’s CBD closely followed by foreign investors taking home $2.4 billion. Meanwhile, Cromwell Funds has acquired 64 Allara Street in Canberra from Australian Ethical Investments for $16.8 million.The A Grade office building was constructed in 2008 and is fully leased to a range of blue chip tenants. Cromwell Funds management director Michael Blake says the acquisition provided the opportunity to grow the Fund’s portfolio in Canberra commercial property at a favourable time in the property cycle.