The deal was negotiated by Lease Equity’s Director of Capital Markets, Luke Pavlos

Mr Pavlos said, the well know and established Legal Firm had taken up 220sqm on Level 6 of the 7 level office building located at Perth’s CBD’s West End.

Mr Pavlos said, the Tenant moved from a character office to the more conventional office premise at 218 St Georges Terrace taking advantage of higher quality accommodation with much better floor plate efficiencies which meant lower gross occupancy costs.

Mr Pavlos said Tenants are often attracted by headline rents and incentives without looking at the full picture “what is my total occupancy cost based on the number of staff I need to accommodate and our hours of trade”.

Every building is different, this includes floor plate design, day to day running costs, building maintenance, services and amenity. Tenants can often be lured by Premium and A grade buildings with all the bells and whistles of Character offices for their charm, only to find that there can be a lot of costs that vary from year to year and hit the bottom line. Its like buying the Ferrari or Ford GT without considering the cost of insurance, maintenance or fuel consumption.

Mr Pavlos said there are some great deals to be had in Perth CBD B grade buildings, in particular those where Landlords have proactively undertaken upgrades to mechanical and building services to reduce the overheads for its Tenants.

218 St Georges Terrace was upgraded about 3 years ago as a result, the buildings outgoing including general repairs and maintenance have remained relatively low and very competitive in the market place.

Mr Pavlos said typical floor plates in the building where 640sqm which could be split and offers very affordable high quality accommodation in Perth CBD’s most desirable West End.