December 21st REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2020

For sale and lease search volumes continued to fall last week, but there is considerably more activity in the commercial market than this time last year. 

The volumes of searches for properties for sale on realcommercial.com.au fell by -4.6 per cent last week, but some states bucked the trend.

Western Australia (1%), Tasmania (9.7%) and Australian Capital Territory (1.6%) all recorded a rise in for sale searches last week. The largest weekly falls were recorded in Northern Territory (-6.4%) and Victoria (-4.8%).declines.

For sale search volumes are now -14.3 per cent lower than their historic peak, but remain 43.6 per cent higher than a year ago, which is the largest year-on-year increase on record.

Northern Territory (158.5%) and Western Australia (66.8%) have recorded the largest year-on-year increases in for sale searches, while Victoria (32.4%) and New South Wales (40.5%) the smallest.

Lease search volumes also fell last week, down by -6.0 per cent, which was their largest weekly fall in 19 weeks.

Queensland (0.2%) and Northern Territory (0.8%) were the only states in which lease search volumes rose over the week, with the largest falls in Australian Capital Territory (-20.3%) and Victoria (-7.9%).

There has now been a -19.8 per cent decline in weekly lease search volumes from their peak nationally, with each state now seeing volumes below the peak.

Australian Capital Territory (-40%) and Northern Territory (-34.3%) have recorded the largest overall declines in lease search volumes, with Queensland (-16.3%) and Western Australia (-21.5%) recording the smallest falls.

Despite the recent decline in lease search volumes, they are 42.8 per cent higher than a year ago, which is also the largest year-on-year increase on record.

Queensland and South Australia (both 42.3%) have recorded the largest year-on-year increases in lease search volumes, while Northern Territory (20.7%) and Tasmania (21.0%) have recorded the smallest.

Despite the seasonal weakness in search volumes both for sale and lease volumes remain significantly higher than they were a year ago.

As the economy continues to recover from the recession many businesses are likely to reassess their accommodation requirements. I would expect this will continue to drive heightened volumes of search in 2021.