Property billionaire Andrew Roberts grabs Canberra bargain

Andrew Roberts, head of the Roberts family who formerly owned development company Multiplex, has delved back into the property market by buying a Canberra office building for $123 million.

Roberts, whose family was valued at $1.2 billion on BRW’s Rich 200 list, bought Industry House in Canberra for about $17 million less than the valuation of the seller, AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund.

Roberts’ representative on the deal, Ian O’Toole of CoreVal Partners, told the Australian Financial Review that Roberts was “building a core property portfolio of absolutely risk-free assets”.

Roberts is also in the process of buying the building that will house the new headquarters of the Australian Red Cross Blood Bank in Sydney for about $63 million.

The Roberts family sold Multiplex in 2007 for around $1.1 billion.