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The property industry globally, and office building owners in particular, are struggling as working from home and e-commerce lead tenants to reconsider floor space just as higher interest rates reduce building values and raise debt servicing costs. Dexus sold the 18-story A-Grade office for A$293.1 million ($188 million), a 16.3% discount to its December 2022 valuation, according to company filings. Quintessential Equity, an Australian property developer and investor, announced itself as the buyer on its website without elaborating. Dexus will own a A$50 million stake in the trust that will hold the property, it said in a statement. In June, Dexus sold another premium office building in Sydney's central business district for A$393.1 million, a near 17% discount to an independent valuation made in December.

Persons: Loren Elliott, Dexus, Darren Steinberg, Lewis Jackson, Rishav Chatterjee, Subhranshu Sahu, Rashmi Aich, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Equity, Thomson Locations: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Australian, Bengaluru

SYDNEY, July 28 (Reuters) - Foreign bank lending to Australian office real estate hit a record high in the first quarter as overseas lenders continued to stump up cash for a struggling corner of the property market out of favour with local banks. The data does not identify individual banks, however a separate dataset covering overall corporate lending showed European, Japanese, Singaporean and Chinese banks had led the increase in foreign lending since 2019. Loans from Australia's biggest banks fell A$2.3 billion to A$83 billion over the same period, similar to levels in late 2021, the data showed. So, as Australian lenders have retreated to the relative safety of retail mortgages, foreign banks have stepped up. Sydney was the worst-performing major Asian office market in the first quarter, according to research from global property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

Persons: Jonathan Kearns, Kearns, Jones Lang LaSalle, Lewis Jackson, Stephen Coates Organizations: SYDNEY, prudential, Australia's, Challenger, Reserve Bank of Australia, Reuters, Sydney, Investment, Thomson Locations: Australia, Asia, Europe

Added to valuations from December, major REITs, which build, own and operate property assets, have marked down office portfolios by roughly a tenth or less over the past year. Dexus shares have fallen 28% since 2022, while Charter Hall has nearly halved. "Buyers aren't willing to pay the price from the last valuations," said Winston Sammut, an investment manager at Sequoia Financial Group and a former executive at Charter Hall. Dexus and Charter Hall did not respond to requests for comment. "We're looking to see whether the fund managers, the Charter Halls, the Centurias, the Dexus are also getting large redemptions."

Persons: Tom Westbrook, Buyers, Winston Sammut, it's, REITs, Centuria, Grant Berry, Dexus, Ping, Blackstone, Amy Pham, Sammut, Australia's, Hostplus, that's, Pham, Lewis Jackson, Scott Murdoch, Sam Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Charter Hall, Sequoia Financial Group, Charter, Reuters, SG Hiscock, Company, Blackstone, Sydney, Pengana Capital, Thomson Locations: Epping, Sydney, Australia, SYDNEY, Canberra, United States

Charter Hall did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. On its website Charter Hall said the fund would "only sell assets for prices that reflect fair value and given the lower sales volumes in the office investment markets, sales have proved challenging". Another REIT and Australia's largest office landlord Dexus (DXS.AX) last month sold a premium downtown Sydney office block for a 17% discount on a valuation made six months earlier. The Australian and U.S. REIT benchmark indexes are down roughly a fifth since highs at the end of 2021. But unlisted fund valuations have declined more slowly, creating an incentive for investors to pull money out while a chunky premium over listed equivalents remains, according to fund managers with investments in REITs.

Persons: Australia's, Hall, Dexus, Blackstone, Lewis Jackson, Byron Kaye, Jacqueline Wong Organizations: SYDNEY, Investors, PFA Fund, Charter Hall, KKR, Australian, Income, Thomson Locations: Australian, Sydney, REITs, BlackRock

SYDNEY, May 2 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest landlords and developers played down concerns about inflated commercial property valuations at a conference on Tuesday, while acknowledging economic uncertainty was making investors and renters more cautious. Premium buildings coupled with signs workers were returning to offices should help protect the portfolio, said chief investment officer Ross Du Vernet. "It doesn't really make a lot of sense," Du Vernet said at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney. Du Vernet declined to provide a price guide. That question was making large leases harder to lock in years ahead of time, Du Vernet said.

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