Metrics to call Martin Place home amid private credit boom
One of Australia’s largest non-bank lenders Metrics will ditch its neighbourhood offices in North Sydney for a home at the foot of Sydney’s civic heart, the heritage-listed 1 Martin Place, joining a string of corporates that have moved to bigger, flashier digs recently.
The lender, which has quadrupled its funds under management in five years to $20 billion, is upgrading its office when private credit funds have been boosted by developers turning to non-bank lenders for larger loans to kick-start projects.
“We currently have multiple sites in North Sydney and we’re looking to consolidate our Sydney team into one single location back in the CBD,” Metrics managing director Andrew Lockhart said.
“We think this is important from an organisational culture and team communication perspective post the disruption caused during the COVID period and it was also an attractive time to negotiate a new deal on favourable terms.”
The move by Metrics into the CBD follows several similar decisions by prominent tenants to increase their office footprints, pointing to green shoots within the Sydney office market as the top end of town seeks more office space again.
Other firms upsizing offices include BlackRock, which will occupy about 2500 square metres across two floors at the revamped AMP building which has been renamed 33 Alfred Street, an increase of 800 square metres on its current Chifley Tower head office.
BlackRock’s future neighbours at 33 Alfred Street, Allens and Pinsent Masons, are also increasing the space they are renting. Allens will occupy 11,000 square metres, about 1000 more than it uses at Deutsche Bank Place, while Pinsent Masons is upping its office space by 1850 square metres.
At 1 Martin Place, Metrics will almost double its Sydney office footprint to 1600 square metres. Existing tenants at the 24-storey building include listed real estate fund manager Charter Hall, commercial law firm DLA Piper and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
Metrics will leave its North Sydney operations, which has been split across two office buildings.
The main office is 2 Ridge Street, called Playfair House, a heritage-listed building that was acquired by the non-bank lender in 2016 for $2.9 million. It was built in the late nineteenth century and was once the home of former Sydney lord mayor and prominent meat merchant, Thomas Playfair.
The other office on 8 West Street is a B-grade tower located a minute’s walk from 2 Ridge Street.
Metrics’ move follows a trough in office markets where 19 of Australia’s largest companies cut their office needs by almost 200,000 square metres in the Sydney CBD since the pandemic lockdowns in 2020.
The private credit boom has so far led to about $200 billion being managed by private credit funds to start 2025, up from $188 billion the year prior.
