Adelaide Greek Australians remain the city’s most powerful office landlords, with developers Theo Samaras’ Kyren Group, the Andrianakos Property Group and the Kambitsis Group among the biggest private owners shaping the CBD.
Analysis by Knight Frank shows local families now hold 44 per cent of Adelaide’s office space, well ahead of institutional investors at 34 per cent and foreign investors at less than 10 per cent.
Samaras’ Kyren Group leads the way with a growing portfolio that includes major holdings on Wakefield and King William streets. Last year, Kyren paid $84.25m for the EY building and is close to completing a new office tower on Franklin St, next to its PwC building.
The Melbourne-based Andrianakos Property Group, founded by the late petrol magnate Nick Andrianakos, consolidated its Adelaide presence with the $175m acquisition of the People First Bank building in 2020 and a neighbouring Santos headquarters. Late last year, the group also bought a $170m half-stake in Elizabeth City Centre.
The Kambitsis Group has also expanded its CBD presence in recent years, adding to the trend of generational private investors adopting a “buy well, don’t sell” strategy that has long underpinned Adelaide’s commercial property market.
Knight Frank’s head of capital markets, Max Frohlich, said the ownership mix had “evolved significantly” since the removal of stamp duty on commercial property deals in 2018.
“This reform lowered transaction costs, boosted deal volumes and attracted institutional and offshore capital,” he said. “But domestic groups, particularly privates and wholesale syndicators, have since become more active.”
Despite a softer market since the pandemic, the city’s largest family developers remain confident in Adelaide’s long-term fundamentals.
Source: The Advertiser.
