A 36-year-old office building in Barton that underwent a sustainable upgrade has sold for $25.13 million, in the second biggest commercial sale of the year in the ACT.
Selling agent Matthew Winter from Colliers confirmed the purchaser was a Sydney-based property syndicate that already had holdings in the territory.
Built in 1990, the building is named for its previous owner and current tenant, the Australian Medical Association. It is also home to the embassies for Peru and the Republic of Korea.
EG Funds bought the building in 2018 for $15.6 million as part of its High Income Sustainable Office Trust, which buys existing commercial buildings with the purpose of improving their sustainability ratings.
AMA House had a NABERS rating of just 3.0 stars when the fund took over. Now, thanks in part to the installation of a 95 kilowatt behind-the-meter solar system installed in June 2023, the rating has jumped to 5.5 stars. Total energy consumption was halved, and annual operations emissions reduced by 75 per cent, according to EG Funds.
"42 Macquarie Street validates EG's core belief that doing the right thing for the environment and the community should also enhance financial outcomes for investors," the fund's managing director, Roger Parker, said in a statement.
Mr Winter said sustainability was an important consideration for buyers, who may need it to attract tenants and meet modern sustainability requirements when selling.
The property attracted a number of local and domestic bids during the five-week expression of interest campaign, with many looking for an asset within the parliamentary precinct, according to Mr Winter.
The sale was the second major commercial building in the ACT this year, following the purchase of the Australian Federal Police College, which was bought by a Canberra-based property syndicate for $86 million in April.
That sale marked the beginning of a turnaround for the territory's commercial property market, after a relatively flat 2025.
About $320 million worth of commercial property was sold in the ACT last year, a figure significantly bolstered by the $305 million sale of the Yaradhang building in December, one of just two sales to clear the $10 million mark.
That overall figure was slightly lower than the ACT's average, and significantly below the record set in 2022, when $1.5 billion of commercial property changed hands in the ACT.
In December, Mr Winter predicted a stronger market in 2026, saying a large number of large properties had been put on the market in the final months of 2025 that were expected to transact in the new year.
The volume of stock on the market had been much higher in the first half of 2026, Mr Winter said, and would ultimately translate to more successful deals.
"We would expect the second half of this year to be quite busy in terms of transaction volume and forthcoming campaigns," he said.
"There's a number of local and institutional owners that are committed to sales processes."
