Servcorp builds Australian portfolio with prestige leasings in Melbourne, Perth and Parramatta

Global serviced office provider Servcorp has expanded its portfolio of leased office space in Australia with new floor leasings in Melbourne, Perth and Parramatta but says the CBD office market remains soft.

Among its latest CBD office floor leasings is a whole floor in the BHP/Brookfield Place skyscraper on Perth’s St Georges Terrace, which along with leasings at 101 Collins Street in Melbourne and a floor in the new Deloitte Eclipse tower in Parramatta, takes its portfolio of leased office space to 27 floors across Australia and New Zealand.

Servcorp operates 30,000 square metres of leased premium office space, which last year brought in revenue of $54 million.

Serviced office space can be rented from around $260 per week with flexible leases starting from one month.

Servcorp chief operating officer Marcus Moufarrige tells Property Observer that contrary to what might be thought, the serviced office market operates in the same cycle as the overall office market.

“Serviced offices are cyclical, not counter-cyclical. They are a good barometer of what’s happening in the market,” he says.

Moufarrige says Australia got "pretty badly punished from a commercial real estate perspective" and expects a recovery to be about a year off.

"We’ve looked to take advantage by signing some more space in Australia.”

Servcorp targets space in only A-grade and premium office blocks with the emphasis on leasing space in prestigious and recognisable office landmarks.

The new floor in 101 Collins Street – the second floor leased in the building by Servcorp – is located at the Paris end of Collins Street and will be targeted at both emerging and established business organisations, ranging from small businesses to multi-nationals to companies looking for project space or rotating workspace solutions. Other tenants include Macquarie Bank, Cisco and Goldman Sachs.

Globally, it operates in 125 locations in 21 countries, which includes space leased in the Louis Vuitton building on the Champs Elysees in Paris as well as a pre-commitment to lease space in One World Trade Center – Manhattan's Freedom Tower – currently being built on the site of the World Trade Centre.

Servcorp’s biggest market in Australia is Sydney, where it has space in 10 office towers with the remainder distributed between Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.