Challenger sells Brisbane tower for $100m

Challenger has offloaded a Brisbane tower to the Sentinel Property Group for $103m.

Warren Ebert from Sentinel Property Group. Picture: AAP

Financial services company Challenger has continued its property sell off by offloading a Brisbane tower to the Sentinel Property Group for $103 million.

Challenger has been selling direct property assets as it sees a chance to exit in the bullish market and it last week sold Brisbane’s NEXT Hotel & CBD Retail development to Salter Brothers for $150m.

It has now sold Makerston House to Sentinel in what would mark the largest acquisition in the Brisbane-based firm’s history.

Sentinel will put the asset into its main unlisted real estate investment trust after buying the fully leased Brisbane CBD office building on a yield of 7.85 per cent via JLL.

Makerston House, which is opposite the Queensland Police Service headquarters near the Brisbane Transit Centre, will be the tenth addition to the Sentinel Regional Office Trust.

Since 2016 Sentinel has amassed a portfolio of properties in Brisbane, Darwin, Townsville, Cairns, Newcastle and the north coast NSW regional centre of Port Macquarie worth more than $350m.

The 14 level office building spans 14,640sq m and it is fully leased with a 4.63 year weighted average lease expiry.

The property is leased to the Queensland government, as well as various state government corporate entities, and Secure Parking, with fixed annual rental reviews ranging between 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent.

Sentinel managing director Warren Ebert said Makerston House was well positioned in the Brisbane CBD’s North Quarter precinct, at the epicentre of some of the city’s multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects including the $5.4bn Cross River Rail network and the $2.1bn Brisbane Live precinct.

“This is a fantastic acquisition for Sentinel and is our biggest purchase since the group started ten years ago,” Mr Ebert said.

Mr Ebert said Sentinel was excited to add Makerston House to the growing trust that owns assets in NSW, NT and Queensland.