Auckland skyscraper in $100m foreign sale

Indonesian and Singaporean investors are buying one of the country's biggest office towers from a New Zealand entity in a deal a state authority says will be worth more than $100 million once it is completed.

The Overseas Investment Office has just revealed it has approved Auckland City Holdings' (Indonesia 50 per cent, Singapore 50 per cent) application to buy a leasehold interest in 205 Queen St from Kiwi Property Holdings (80 per cent New Zealand, 20 per cent Australian), part of the NZX listed Kiwi Income Property Trust, owned by many kiwi investors.

The Queen St building is a glitzy twin-tower block across from Whitcoulls: the 22-level DLA Phillips Fox Tower and the 17-level National Bank Tower. Those towers have a public public foyer area lined with marble and big staircases, gardens, artworks, an espresso bar and shops at ground level.

The first tranche of payment was listed as $48.3 million but the OIO said the investment would be for more than $100 million.

"The applicant proposes to establish a commercial real estate portfolio in New Zealand," the OIO said.