April 12 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021
Buy and lease searches on realcommercial.com.au have increased over the past week, though remain below the peak volumes seen pre-Easter.
Compared to the week prior, searches to buy commercial properties have increased by 4.7% nationally, with every state bar Western Australia recording a rise .
‘Buy’ searches remain well above last year’s levels, which were impacted by COVID-19 lockdown measures. The year-on-year growth is up 74.8%.
The strongest growth in ‘Buy’ searches over the past week were in the Australian Capital Territory (13.5%), the Northern Territory (12.8%) and Queensland (12.2%).
The Australian Capital Territory has also seen the strongest growth in ‘Buy’ searches over a 12-month timeframe (117.2%) and was the only state or territory to see volumes at more than double last year’s level.
Queensland and South Australia have also seen significant year-on-year growth in searches to buy commercial property, up 87.5% and 83.6% respectively. Search volumes were significantly higher in every state, with even the weakest growth rates seen in the Northern Territory (47.9%) and Victoria (58.9%) still well above last year’s figures.
Searches to lease commercial property increased by 5.7% over the past week, driven by particularly strong growth in Queensland where volumes jumped by 17.8%. Weekly searches were up in all states except the Northern Territory (-7.4%) and Western Australia (-0.6%) where volumes dipped.
‘For lease’ searches are now 91.6% higher than those seen 12 months ago, again, inflated by last year’s lockdowns.
Lease searches were more than 50% higher in every state and territory compared to a year ago, with the strongest growth recorded in Tasmania (101%), South Australia (89.7%) and Queensland (87.7%).
Search volumes, which were hardest hit over the March-April 2020 lockdown, had largely returned to pre-COVID trend levels by May. For this reason, we expect the significant year-on-year growth in search volumes seen over the past month to continue moderating over the coming weeks.
