An analysis taken by international property firm Knight Frank revealed that of the top 15 landlords, Sydney-based Charter Hall and Dexus were the largest.

On the other side of the coin, Marquette Properties, ASX-listed Cromwell Property Group and the Queensland Investment Corporation were the only ones with bona fide Queensland credentials.

Of the private landlords there were only two – Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart and Taiwanese-based Pau Jar’s Shayher Group’s Lin family with a presence in the CBD.

“While the top investment managers have remained similar over the past five years there has been a distinct rotation out of the markets by Australian REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and greater wholesale fund investment,” said Knight Frank partner, head of capital markets Queensland, Justin Bond.

“There has been greater direct investment from super funds into the market as their scale now allows for major asset ownership rather than investing via a wholesale manager.”

Mr Bond said the Brisbane CBD has largely been limited to smaller asset sales over the past 18 months with private investors, syndicators and unlisted entities the most active in the sub-$150m price bracket.

Some of those players include Sentinel Property Group, Cadence Property Group and Alceon Group.

Mr Bond said there was plenty of capital on the sidelines waiting for the tall towers to go on the market with strong interest from offshore investors, particularly patient capital seeking core assets.

“This is likely to change over the remainder of the year, with offshore and domestic capital increasingly seeking to deploy into the Brisbane market,” he said.

“While US capital is expected to remain underweight to office assets there are other sources of capital which are still keen to invest in quality office product. This includes both domestic and offshore – particularly Japanese – sources of capital.

“Due to sustained and robust net absorption over the past five years the Brisbane market is now seen as the number two office investment destination in Australia, behind only Sydney.”

Property Council Queensland executive director Jess Caire said Brisbane’s office market remained dominated by institutional owners despite an increase in syndicators at the expense of private owners, such as family offices and individuals.

“Brisbane has firmly taken its place on the global stage, with tenant demand holding strong, limited new office supply and Queensland’s economic momentum,” she said.

“Brisbane is enjoying increased interest from international capital as a result, with owners and

agents telling us that Brisbane is now being considered ahead of Melbourne, as confidence in Victoria’s investment environment plummets.

“For a city that hasn’t historically seen the same offshore capital flows as Sydney or Melbourne, this shift signals growing appeal and an opportunity to become the most compelling investment proposition in the country.”

Brisbane’s biggest landlords

Charter Hall

One of biggest property investor and developers in Australia, Charter Hall and its funds has the largest presence in the Brisbane CBD, with a property portfolio boasting eight office assets and an $800m premium tower at 360 Queen St nearing completion.

Sydney-based Charter Hall, which has been headed by David Harrison for 21 years, has long been a major player in Brisbane and its oldest owned tower is Northbank Plaza at 69 Ann St, which it bought in 2006.

The ASX-listed company owns many of the properties in conjunction major investors such as the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, which has a 95 per cent stake in Santos Place at 32 Turbot St, and the ANZ Centre in Queen St that is 88 per cent owned by Dutch pension funds PGGM.

The construction of its 33-storey tower at 360 Queen St, is jointly owned by the ICPF Investors and Oxford Properties backed Investa.

Dexus

The Sydney-based property player’s Brisbane CBD office portfolio boasts two of the CBD’s major premium office towers – Waterfront Place and 480 Queen St.

With the AM60 tower Dexus has more than $1bn of office assets in the CBD.

The ASX-listed fully integrated real asset group, headed by Ross Du Vernet, is also developing the “city-changing” $2.5bn Waterfront Brisbane development which will have two premium office towers – the North and South towers.

While to South tower is on the backburner the 49-storey North Tower is under construction and is over 50 per cent precommitted. It is due for completion by the end of 2028.

GPT

Better known as an owner, manager and developer of retail assets, GPT owns two of the Brisbane CBD’s major premium office towers – One One One Eagle Street and the Riverside Centre.

GPT was the developer with Lendlease of the Harry Seidler designed 40-storey Riverside Centre at 123 Eagle St four decades ago. The GPT also developed the 54-storey tower at 111 Eagle St that was designed by Cox Rayner Architects.

The building was delivered in 2012 after a four-year build, and is owned by the GPT Wholesale Office Fund and The GPT Group.

AsheMorgan

The Melbourne-based private real estate equity firm owns five CBD office buildings and which encompass over 110,000 sqm.

Founded by Michael Moss in 1981, the company bought what was then known as The Complex in 2019 for $425m.

Now known as No. 1 Anzac Square the property has three office buildings – 140 Creek St, 295 Ann St and 232 Adelaide St combined via a five-storey glass atrium into one single assets.

AsheMorgan owns the former round Suncorp building – known as the wedding cake building – at 310 Ann St which was redeveloped by the Pidgeon family.

The company also partnered with DMANN Corporation to merge two former government towers – the Forestry and Health buildings – into the A-Grade Midtown Centre facing onto Mary and Charlotte streets.

An architectural first for Brisbane, the merged building is Brisbane’s 10th largest and includes an original 1870s heritage facade.

Cbus Super

The superannuation giant’s property arm developed with ISPT the state government tenanted Tower of Power at 1 William St which at 75,000 sqm is Brisbane’s largest office building by net lettable area and overall footprint.

The tower was built on land lease from the state government for 99 years and is a 50-50 joint venture with ISPT.

Cbus also developed the new “wellness” tower at 205 North Quay joint venture partner, MJ Nielson, a company associated with Nielson Properties and Brisbane’s Raniga family who were later bought out by the superannuation giant.

Occupied by Services Australia the $600m tower opened this year.

Daisho

The Japanese property giant developed the 34-story office tower at 180 Ann St which was opened in 2019.

The tower was realised and building started on spec during the global financial crisis and the Commonwealth Bank is the anchor tenant.

Daisho also owns the office building next door at 200 Ann St which was purpose-built for software company Mincom.

Daisho bought it in 2001 and its 2800 sqm floorplates are one of the largest in the Brisbane CBD.

ISPT

The superannuation property fund manager purchased the A-grade tower Central Plaza 1 on Queen St in 2007.

The 44-storey office tower was compete in 1988 and for a time was Brisbane’s tallest building.

ISPT also has a 50 per cent share in the state government anchored tower at 1 William St which it developed with Cbus.

Marquette Properties

Marquette was established in 2009 by Brisbane-based Toby Lewis as a specialist property investment manager.

The company, which manages the towers and is focused on value adding, controls four CBD office buildings with investors.

Marquette purchased the 34-storey Gold tower at 10 Eagle St with a private syndicate and the 32-storey Blue tower at 12 Eagle Street and Annex with Lendlease which owns 49 per cent of the building.

Marquette also manages the B-grade 27-storey Highpoint tower at 288 Edward St with Chicago headquartered real estate investment firm Heitman which has a 75 per cent ownership of the building.

Marquette recently bought the David Longland building at 63 George St from QIC for $52m.

Cromwell

The ASX-listed Cromwell Property Group owns three Brisbane CBD office towers through its Direct Property Fund.

In 2019 it bought the 35-storey 400 George St in the CBD’s North Quarter in the heart of the legal precinct.

The fund manager also owns the refurbished 1970s 24-level tower at 100 Creek St and a 10-storey building at 545 Queen St which they bought in 2021.

QIC

The State government’s own investment arm and its QIC Infrastructure property fund owns three CBD office towers that are leased by the state government.

The four buildings were part of a seven-building portfolio offloaded to QIC by the state government in 2013 for $562m

The tower at 111 George St – which has been nicknamed the Cheese Grater – is connected to another of its buildings at 33 Charlotte St.

QIC also owns the 30-storey Education House at Mary St and recently sold the David Longland building at 63 George St the Marquette Properties for $52m.

Par Jar Group (Shayher Group)

Owned by the Lin family the Taiwanese family company developed the Brisbane Quarter with the Bao Jia Group.

The precinct includes the 41-storey office tower 300 George St.

The family also owns the 10-storey office building at 140 Elizabeth St which it purchased from QIC in 2019.

Investa

The company which is headed by Peter Menegazzo co-owns the $800m 33-storey 360 Queen Street in a joint venture with Charter Hall, which will be finished by the end of the year.

The real estate investment manager also owns the 16-level office tower at 259 Queen st through its Investa Commercial Property Fund which acquired the property in 2013.

The National Australia Bank is the anchor tenant and the building has been renamed NAB Place.

Gina Rinehart

Australia’s richest person has bought two Brisbane CBD office towers in 2023 through her Hanrine Properties vehicle which is a branch of Hancock Prospecting.

She bought the riverfront 20-storey tower at 175 Eagle St for $275m. The tower was completed in 2002 and renovated in 2012 and again in 2018. It comprises 22,258sq m of floorspace, including ground floor retail, 19 floors of office space and a multi-level basement carpark.

She also bought the 14-storey tower at 70 Eagle St – also known as Central Plaza 3 from US wealth manager Pembroke.

ARA

Singapore’s ARA Asset Management Australia has two Brisbane office towers.

They own the 24-storey HSBC Tower at 300 Queen St which it purchased in 2016 from the Seymour Group.

In 2019 ARA secured the 16-storey building on 133 Mary St from the Canadian-based Quadra Pacific through a private fund managed by the firm.

In 2022 ARA was bought by ESR Group – an Asia-Pacific focused real estate services and investment company.

Source: Ownership data for the Brisbane CBD has been collated by Knight Frank’s research team, predominantly using Real Capital Analytics (RCA) data. The top ownership list has been calculated according to NLA. For consistency, assets with part ownership have been attributed to the main owner, rather than wholesale investors with part ownership. Due largely to complexities in ownerships, particularly part-ownerships, this list cannot be relied upon as being 100% accurate, but will give an understanding of the ownership landscape.

Disclaimer: Although high standards have been used in the preparation of the information, no responsibility or liability whatsoever can be accepted by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd for any loss or damage resultant from any use of, reliance on or reference to this information. As general information, this material does not necessarily represent the view of Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd in relation to particular properties or projects.