KPMG, CGU join race for office space

Global accounting giant KPMG and insurance group CGU have joined a host of firms searching through Perth’s 400,000-plus square metres of vacant office space for new homes.

KPMG is understood to have appointed Pepper Property to find a 7,000sqm tenancy in the Perth CBD, with its options looking a lot more plentiful than the last time it looked for new space.

The accounting firm has been at its current Perth headquarters at 235 St Georges Terrace since that building was completed in 2009, when Perth’s CBD office vacancy rate was just 8 per cent.

At the end of March, there were 174 full floors available to lease in the Perth CBD, according to research from commercial agency Savills.

The Property Council of Australia is due to release its most up-to-date vacancy figures early next month, but in January, it said 19.2 per cent of Perth CBD offices were empty.

Also looking for new digs is Insurance Australia Group’s CGU, which has its current WA headquarters on Colin Street in West Perth.

Savills is understood to be handling advocacy on behalf of CGU, with its requirement for between 6,000sqm and 7,000sqm.

If either KPMG or CGU strike deals for a new office, it would mark the largest office leasing transaction in Perth since December last year, when the state government signed an 11,395sqm lease at 81 St Georges Terrace.

The two firms are also among a wide range of companies with big space requirements known to be looking closely at what is firmly a tenant’s market.

Oil and gas producer Inpex is reportedly close to an agreement with Brookfield Property Partners to consolidate its workforce to Brookfield Place, while Telstra, Westpac and Quadrant Energy are all understood to be seeking between 7,000sqm and 10,000sqm.