Tiny office in the heart of Sydney is one of the cheapest on the market
A 15-square-metre office in Sydney’s iconic Trust Building has hit the market as one of the cheapest entry points to the expensive and tightly held CBD office market.
The suite, 702/155 King Street, has most recently been occupied by a jeweller who is now retiring, according to listing agent Will Mulvihill, of Henderson & Horning Property Consultants.
A search of listings on Commercial Real Estate confirmed that the suite is one of the cheapest offices currently available for sale in Sydney’s CBD. But don’t be fooled by the $305,000 price tag. Mr Mulvihill said while it may seem small, on a price-per-square-metre basis it was actually one of the more expensive on the market.
“It’s one of the cheapest because of the size, but the rate per square metre is definitely strong,” Mr Mulvihill said.
Demand for small spaces in the CBD was currently outstripping supply, with the price per square metre in the building having risen by at least $1500 to $2000 a square metre in the past six months to be $19,000 to $20,000 a square metre, he said.
The average price per square metre for strata offices in the CBD last year hovered around $14,357 a square metre, according to figures from CoreLogic.
Mr Mulvihill has been selling space in the building ever since it was divided up for strata offices in 1994. In 2019, he sold two suites on level nine.
He said it had long been popular with businesses such as jewellers because of its smaller proportions, with at least three jewellers listed as operating from the Trust Building and the state heritage listing making reference to jeweller tenants being in place from 1930 onwards.
“A lot of jewellers work with other jewellers and it’s handy to be close to each other,” said Mr Mulvihill, adding that suites in the building ranged from 12 to 50 square metres in size.
But more recently other tenants had taken an interest in the property.
Those sales in 2019 were to a global commodities trader and a property developer.
“If someone wants to have a CBD base, a small office, it’s difficult to find a small space of this kind,” he said.
The Trust Building, which was built between 1914 and 1916, cuts an imposing figure on the corner of King and Castlereagh streets.
It was most recently in the headlines after luxury retailer Hermes purchased the building’s retail floors for about $100 million, with the site set to become the brand’s flagship store.
Originally the home of The Daily Telegraph newspaper, the building was one of the tallest in the country at the time it was built.
After the newspaper relocated in 1929 the building was transformed into the Hotel Savoy, with the lower ground floor becoming a two-level bar.
The Hotel Savoy failed three years later and the property was subsequently bought by the Southern British National Trust, which used it as its insurance premises.
The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage describes the building as an “unsurpassed example of architecture in the Interwar Commercial Palazzo style” and states that “the exterior of the building is the leading example of the first generation skyscrapers in Sydney”.
