Veteran real estate agent Chris Mulcahy has sold his former office on Bourke Street for $1.825 million.

CBRE’s Melbourne City Sales team of Julian White, Alex Brierley and Chao Zhang negotiated the sale of suite 601/488 Bourke Street, which was the premises of Mr Mulcahy’s real estate agency, Mulcahy Butera.

An owner-occupier snapped up the property for a price that translates to $13,321/ square metre based on the suite’s net lettable area of 137 square metres.

At a glance:

• The former premises of real estate agency Mulcahy Butera has been sold to an owner-occupier for $1.825 million.
• The sale price for the office suite at  601/488 Bourke Street translates to $13,321/ square metre based on the suite’s net lettable area of 137 square metres.
• CBRE’s Melbourne City Sales team of Julian White, Alex Brierley and Chao Zhang negotiated the sale on behalf of Chris Mulcahy.

Mr White said the sale price was 76 per cent higher than the most recent sale in the building of suite 303, which transacted for $7,577/ square metre in September 2018. 

“Given the current low cash rate, Melbourne’s very tight office vacancy and associated rent increases, many small to medium-size business owners are electing to buy, rather than rent, which is driving the popularity of the city’s strata market,” he said.

Mr Alex Brierley said the trend was causing many site owners to consider strata office as a viable alternative to residential or hotel use.

"Office tenants with 6-12 months remaining on their lease are proving to be the most aggressive buyers of strata office product across the Melbourne CBD to provide themselves with a future relocation strategy," he said.

Suite 601 offers partitioned offices and included an outdoor terrace. It is located at the rear end of the building backing onto Mantra on Little Bourke Street, overlooking the Supreme Court.

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