CITY ICON FOR SALE
JARRAD BEVAN
A LARGE building in the centre of Hobart city is set to attract local and offshore buyers ahead of its October sale.
CBD building Murray House is a landmark, fully leased, city property.
The building is listed with Colliers’ Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma and Knight Frank’s Richard Steedman and George Burbury.
It will be sold by expressions of interest with the agencies describing Murray House as “exceptional”.
Mr Ma described Murray House as a “generational asset”.
He said the asset provides significant value-add opportunities including further development in time with the potential to increase the building height (subject to council approvals).
“The property benefits from 36.8m of street frontage, a favourable central business zoning — meaning different outcomes may be explored by a range of buyer groups — including investors, owner-occupiers and add-value developers.
“Murray Street is a major carriageway passing through Hobart’s city centre, and thus experiences passing pedestrian and vehicular traffic.”
This commercial investment property comprises some 2333sq m of rentable area across its four levels.
The retail and office commercial building is set on 956sq m of land at 73-81 Murray Street, Hobart.
Currently the property has a net income, before operating expenses, of about $586,000 per annum. Its WALE (weighted average lease expiry) is 2.3 years.
Per CoreLogic, No.73-81 Murray Street has been transacted four times between 1989 and 2017, each for a multimillion sum.
Murray House offers a unique opportunity to acquire a Hobart commercial investment in Australia’s leading capital city economy, per the past six CommSec surveys.
Mr Burbury said Tasmania’s property market has been a major beneficiary of the past 12 months with investors eager to place funds in Tasmania’s capital city.
“This is driven by the lack of competing stock, strong tenant demand and no new commercial developments in the pipeline,” he said.
“These factors, coupled with continued record low-interest rates, positions Murray House as an exceptional investment opportunity with a diversified income stream.”
Properties in Murray House’s immediate vicinity include strip retail premises including well-known brands such as Sportsgirl, Myer, Crowne Plaza Hotel; various office buildings and the State Library.
Public carparking is in abundance in the area with the property positioned midway between two of Hobart’s largest public car parks, Centrepoint Shopping Centre Car Park and the Hobart Central Car Park only 100m in each direction from Murray House.
The property will be sold by expressions of interest closing in October.