Quanta’s Stacey Jones on why Brisbane’s office market is hot property
Quanta Investment Funds talks about why it is optimistic about the Brisbane commercial real estate sector
Brisbane fund manager Quanta has been a staple bidder for Brisbane’s commercial listings and its latest coup is the creation of another investment trust seeded by the $21m purchase of a city fringe commercial site at 23 Graham Street in Milton.
Founded by Stacey Jones, the firm is now a $270m manager with 16 properties across 11 investments trusts, and growing.
Green Street News asked Jones what’s making Brisbane’s commercial real estate market increasingly attractive.
Founding Director – Stacey Jones
23 Graham Street in Milton
Not everyone is sanguine about offices. Is the Brisbane market different?
Brisbane is genuinely different to Sydney and Melbourne when it comes to office fundamentals. Vacancy rates in Brisbane are materially lower than the southern states, which has underpinned a far stronger leasing market. This strength is being driven by a lack of new stock coming online and sustained demand for high-quality office spaces.
A good example is our Brisbane CBD acquisition on Ann Street in late 2022, located around 100 metres from King George Square and Central Station. Our acquisition assumptions projected rents of around $650 per square metre, yet in the second half of 2025 we have been achieving over $850 per square metre. That rental growth has helped offset broader downward valuation pressure caused by interest rate rises since 2022.
Importantly, Brisbane experienced fewer and shorter COVID lockdowns than Sydney and Melbourne, meaning work-from-home never became as deeply entrenched and office occupancy has proven more resilient.
There is also a clear “Olympics effect”, with Brisbane’s role as host of the 2032 Games generating strong momentum. More than $19bn of committed infrastructure, transport and urban renewal is supporting confidence, jobs and long-term demand for commercial space.
What is the advantage of investing in Brisbane compared with any other capital cities?
From our perspective, Brisbane currently offers a more compelling risk-reward profile than Sydney or Melbourne. Until recently, it was not typically viewed as one of Australia’s top office markets for commercial property investment. However, driven by low vacancy and strong rental growth, Brisbane was the most resilient office market since the 2022 market peak.
Brisbane is the only capital city of the three to have recorded a decline in office vacancy since COVID. In fact, in the first half of this year, Brisbane was the only Australian capital city with positive demand and negative supply for CBD offices, according to the Property Council’s July 2025 Office Market Report. What these strong leasing fundamentals offer investors is better entry pricing, stronger leasing conditions and more favourable medium-term growth prospects.
Quanta also has medical and industrial assets. What kind of yields do these two asset classes offer in Queensland?
Each year we evaluate a large volume of properties across all asset classes nationally, against our key criteria of having assets that strike the right balance of yield, tenant quality, location, and long-term fundamentals.
Both medical and industrial are consistent favourites.
Last year, the most attractive yield opportunities were in Queensland, relative to the southern states. Recently, we acquired a medical facility on a passing yield of 8.28%, with comparable transactions ranging from approximately 5.84% to 7.25%, and an industrial asset on a passing yield of 8%, compared with market evidence of around 6.40% to 7.57%.
How much funds under management is Quanta eyeing?
Quanta has built a strong platform for sustainable growth, and our focus is on scaling intentionally.
Over the past six months, we have made three important senior appointments that significantly strengthen our in-house capability and ensure we’re resourced for growth. This includes Caitlin Donaldson as head of asset management, Cameron Doyle as head of projects, and Guy Argaet as head of facilities management.
We now have the systems, processes and infrastructure in place to support responsible portfolio expansion, with the expertise to manage upwards of $1bn in funds under management. In just four years, we’ve grown Quanta’s FUM to approximately $270m, and our objective is to grow that to around $500m over the next five years.
Article by Su-Lin Tan in Green Street News