TWO office units at Parkway Parade have been auctioned at $1,243 per square foot and $1,275 psf of strata area, a new high in the current office

TWO office units at Parkway Parade have been auctioned at $1,243 per square foot and $1,275 psf of strata area, a new high in the current office cycle at the leasehold building, though still shy of the $1,665 psf achieved in 1996 in the building.

The buyer of the latest two office units, which are located on the 21st storey of Parkway Parade, is believed to the owner of the Hotel 81 chain, which also owns the adjacent space, used for its management office.

‘Perhaps they bought the two latest units with a view to expanding their office at Parkway Parade,’ a market watcher said.

Parkway Parade is on a site with a remaining lease of about 71 years.

The two units auctioned off last month by Colliers International are currently fetching a monthly rental of about $3,500 each. Their rental leases expire early next year.

Each of the two units has a strata area of 925 sq ft and have sea views.

The seller was M&P Investments, which a companies search showed as being a subsidiary of listed Parkway Holdings, the developer of Parkway Parade.

Office units at Parkway Parade have been changing hands this year mostly below $1,000 psf. For instance, an eighth floor unit was sold for $983 psf in July while a unit on the 10th floor went for $929 psf in May.

But the highest price ever achieved for office space in the building was the $1,665 psf in March 1996 when a 1,765 sq ft unit on the ninth level fetched almost $2.94 million.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s price index for office space in the central region for Q2 2007 was 26.6 per cent higher than a year earlier.