DEWR racks up $5m rent bill on empty Canberra CBD offices

The Canberra Times reported on 2 November that the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is still paying rent on vacant offices at three Civic buildings, with the outlet’s own calculations from tender documents putting this financial year’s bill at about $5.1m. DEWR has not disclosed the outstanding rent itself.

The vacant space spans the department’s former national headquarters at 14 Mort Street, vacated in June 2026 but leased until 30 June 2027, plus 12 Moore Street, where the lease ended in June 2026, and three floors of 11 Moore Street, levels two, three and five, also held until 30 June 2027. Staff from all three sites shifted into DEWR’s existing offices on Marcus Clarke Street and City Walk.

Why it matters

A Commonwealth department paying rent on empty floors for up to a year is a cost that only came to light through questions to the department. DEWR separately told a Senate estimates hearing it had taken a $6.4m accounting write-down for loss of use of the Mort Street building, a figure the department itself put on the record. Further expense may still be ahead, because make-good obligations requiring the offices to be returned to a condition set by the landlord have yet to be costed.

DEWR officials told a parliamentary committee in 2023 that consolidation would cut five Canberra sites to one, saving $9m a year. Deborah Jenkins, the department’s then chief operating officer, said its Canberra buildings were “very much in the old style of large offices that are not flexible.” A DEWR spokesperson has since said moving staff in one go, rather than in stages, minimised disruption to business operations. Of the three sites, only 12 Moore Street was exited at its scheduled lease end.

The numbers

The $5.1m figure is the Canberra Times’ estimate of this financial year’s rent across the three empty sites, calculated from tender documents rather than disclosed by DEWR. DEWR reported a $6.4m accounting write-down for loss of use of the Mort Street building, disclosed at a Senate estimates hearing. The department’s planned consolidated office, London Central on London Circuit, was originally designed as an 11-storey, 70,000sqm precinct; the revived design is a storey taller.

What’s next

DEWR’s leases at 14 Mort Street and the vacant floors of 11 Moore Street run to 30 June 2027, so the department will keep paying rent on empty space until then regardless of when London Central opens. The staff who relocated into the Marcus Clarke Street and City Walk offices are covered by leases that run to May 2030. DEWR says those leases end then to coincide with the planned move to London Central.

Walker Corporation withdrew from the project in 2023 after the National Capital Authority asked for changes to the height, size and scale of the design. Capital Property Group revived the development in October 2025 with an approved design one storey taller than the original, but the opening date has moved from mid-2026 to late 2029. DEWR has signed a 15-year deal to consolidate into the new building. The delay comes against a backdrop where Civic’s commercial property market is itself under pressure.