September 14th REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2020

After consecutive weekly falls, commercial search volumes ticked higher last week.

The volume of searches for properties for sale on realcommercial.com.au increased by 0.2 per cent last week, following two weeks of falls.

Buyer search volumes are now just -4.8 per cent lower than their peak and up 15 per cent year-on-year.

Half of the states recorded a fall in for sale search volumes last week, with the largest falls in Northern Territory (-4.3%) and Victoria (-1.6%), while the largest increases occurred in Australian Capital Territory (3.1%) and Tasmania (1.8%).

For sale search volumes remain lower than their peak throughout all of the states, with the smallest falls in South Australia and Western Australia (both -5.1%) and the largest falls in Victoria (-14.9%) and Australian Capital Territory (-12.6%).

Search volumes remain up on last year, with the greatest increases in Australian Capital Territory (77%) and Northern Territory (60%,) while the smallest increases were in Victoria (1%) and New South Wales (15%).

Lease search volumes recorded a larger 2 per cent increase last week and are now -10.5 per cent lower than their peak.

Each state recorded an uplift in lease search volumes last week, with Australian Capital Territory (16.4%) and South Australia (9.6%) recording the largest increases and Victoria (0.7%) and Tasmania (2.4%) the smallest.

Predictably, Victoria has recorded the largest overall decline in lease search volumes from the peak (-27.3%) followed by Northern Territory (-11.3%). Western Australia (-4.2%) and South Australia (-4.3%) have recorded the smallest falls.

Lease search volumes are currently higher than they were a year ago across each of the states.

The smallest year-on-year increases in lease search volumes were in Victoria (5%) and Northern Territory (20.8%), while the largest increases were in Tasmania (44.5%) and Australian Capital Territory (39.9%).

While there are undoubtedly some headwinds for the commercial property sector given the recession, accommodation costs are likely to come under significant scrutiny.  Given this I expect that there will continue to be heightened volumes of search as businesses monitor the market for more affordable accommodation options.