Global consulting group KPMG moved into its new offices in Parramatta this week in what is a classic, good news, western Sydney story.
“The Parramatta CBD is on track to rival Sydney as an office destination,” he added, with a touch of hyperbole.alone has added 290,000 square metres of space — another third to the CBD — in four towers, including the largest office in Australia, and built for the demands of modern flexible working and sustainability.
Given the challenges, the rise is not surprising. For comparison, the average vacancy across all Australia’s suburban office markets in January was 15.1 per cent.Importantly, Parramatta has recorded positive leasing activity for the past 18 months compared to the anaemic levels of take-up in most cities.
By comparison, the movers in the last six months included KPMG expanding to new space, and Hitachi Construction Machinery, upgrading from Permulwuy further west to attract and hold staff with a contemporary office and better surrounding facilities. Not surprisingly, Parramatta’s office rents, which grew solidly between the end of the GFC and the beginning of the pandemic, have flattened and lease incentives — packages of rental holidays or contributions to fitout provided by landlords to incoming tenants — have risen “dramatically”, according to global real estate giant CBRE.