WPP Signs Brisbane Lease With LaSalle Investment Management

Global fund manager LaSalle Investment Management has signed its first Brisbane office lease since acquiring the Lend Lease Core Plus property portfolio last year, the Australian Financial Review reported.

International marketing company WPP has signed an eight year lease for LaSalle's Stanley Street House in South Brisbane.

The newspaper reported that WPP will pay rent of $600 sqm for the 1990 sqm building with incentives of about 30%. This is high by the standards of Brisbane's office market which currently suffers from a high vacancy rate.

La Salle Investment Management regional director of asset management Simon Howard told the Australian Financial Review the deal was the first the company had done within the six-building portfolio which it acquired for $287 million.

"We feel as though we have struck a good rent and we really believed in the offering," Mr Howard told the newspaper.

"Brisbane is tough and this deal defied the toughness in the market," he said.

The portfolio includes one property in Melbourne, two in Sydney, and three ­properties in Brisbane.