Feb 14 (Reuters) - Australian real estate firm Dexus reported its second steepest half-yearly loss since 2008 on Wednesday as higher rates slashed roughly A$600 million off its large portfolio of office towers.

The result from one of the country's largest landlords with an A$11 billion office portfolio comes six months after its first annual loss since 2009 and highlights how higher rates and the shift to home working continue to weigh on office tower owners around the world.

CEO Darren Steinberg told investors the office sector was approaching the bottom, which should in turn help unfreeze a market that has seen very few sales as buyers wait to see how far prices will fall.

"There's potentially a little bit more to go in office, I think we're closer to the bottom of the cycle now," he said.

Dexus recorded a statutory net loss after tax of A$597.2 million ($385.31 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31 versus a A$23.1 million profit a year earlier,

However, an adjusted metric which excludes valuation changes beat expectations. Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) fell 5.9% to A$292.4 million and beat the Visible Alpha consensus by 11% on a per-security basis, according to Citi analysts.

Dexus expects AFFO excluding trading profits to be broadly in line with last financial year.

Shares were down 0.8% at A$7.87 at 10.50am (2350 GMT).

The half-year loss was driven by a 4.7%, A$687.3 million writedown across Dexus' A$15.5 billion property portfolio, the bulk in office.

Dexus, which manages A$41.3 billion on behalf of others, paid out some A$720 million in redemptions during the half. To pay out investors and fund new projects, Dexus sold A$1.3 billion worth of assets over the period.

($1 = 1.5499 Australian dollars) ($1 = 1.5499 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Echha Jain in Bengaluru and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Sam Holmes)