A significant development application for a 36-storey, 185m commercial tower has been submitted by Charter Hall, reports brisbanedevelopment.com.

The tower, to be located at 266 George St is the 2^nd for Brisbane Square. Features would include 43,824 square metres of commercial space, 6-star Green Star office rating, retention of ground level publically accessible civic square, enhanced facilities for Jan Powers farmer’s markets, and a new food/drink outlet.

The development is a good sign for the office leasing market, with the September market overview from Knight Frank highlighting potential new developments and high investor interest are helping with steady improvement, with prime gross effective rents up 4.7% in comparison to 12 months ago.

Positive signs in the leasing market are flowing into some good activity in the CBD office sales market.

Core Logic has released their latest ‘Cityscope’ showing commercial CBD sales to the beginning of November are up $390 million then compared to the 12 months prior. A total of 60 sales were recorded for the period, totally over $1.6 billion.  More specifically, in the past three months 17 transactions have taken place totalling $574.6 million. This includes $531 million for commercial, $6 million for commercial strata and $1.6 million for retail strata and $36 million in the ‘other’ category.

Significant commercial/retail transactions recorded in the quarter were the sale of; a 50% interest in 400 George Street for $210 million (34-storey office building), 160 Ann Street for $119.5 million (recently refurbished 22-storey office building), and the unconditional contract of 150 Charlotte Street for $105.75 million (19-storey office building formally known as Energex House).

Hannah Schuhmann is positive the activity around office space in Brisbane CBD should translate into more jobs, driving increased demand for residential Brisbane CBD properties.