August 17th REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2020

Commercial search volumes surged last week with double-digit rises for both sale and lease searches.

The volume of for sale searches on realcommercial.com.au increased by 12.3 per cent last week, which was the largest rise in 15 weeks.

Buyer search volumes are now just -0.1 per cent below their record high.

Each state recorded an increase in for sale searches last week, with the smallest increases recorded in Queensland (7.8%) and New South Wales (8.7%), while the largest increases were in Northern Territory (49.9%) and Western Australia (21.8%).

Following a -12.2 per cent weekly slump in searches the week before last, Victorian search volumes rebounded 17.2 per cent last week taking them to their highest volume in four weeks.

In South Australia and Western Australia commercial property searches hit a historic high last week, while volumes in Tasmania (-20.7%) and Australian Capital Territory (-13.0%) are the furthest away from their peak.

Searches for commercial properties for sale were 18.7 per cent higher last week that they were during the same week last year, with search volumes up year-on-year in all states.

Victoria (7.0%) and Tasmania (7.1%) have recorded the smallest year-on-year increases in for sale searches, while Australian Capital Territory (54.4%) and South Australia (38.0%) have recorded the largest increases.

Lease search volumes also rebounded, increasing by 11.6 per cent last week – their largest rise in 15 weeks.

For lease search volumes are now -11.8 per cent lower than their peak.

Australian Capital Territory (-9.3%) and Northern Territory (-7.8%) recorded lease search volume falls over the week, with Tasmania (18.3%) and Victoria (16.4%) witnessed the largest increases.

For Victoria, the 16.4 per cent increase saw lease search volumes was encouraging, however, it did not offset the -24.2 per cent fall the previous week.

Lease search volumes are below their peak in all states with the smallest overall declines in Western Australia (-6.1%) and Tasmania (-6.3%) and the largest in Victoria (-31.4%) and Australian Capital Territory (-24.7%).

Although lease search volumes have declined from their recent peak, they are 17.6 per cent higher than they were at the same time last year.

Lease search volumes are lower year-on-year in Victoria (-9.3%), Northern Territory (-0.1%) and Australian Capital Territory (-5.8%), while Tasmania (33.2%) and Western Australia (23.6%) have seen the largest increases.

The large rebound in search volumes, which happened broadly not just in Victoria, suggests that businesses across the nation are now starting to look forward and consider what their accommodation requirements will be moving forward.

While it was only one week and comes following large declines it will be interesting to see if this is the start of a rebound.

As normality returns to most states and businesses get a clearer view of the impact of the recession on their financial position, I expect that they will be closely scruitinising their accommodation costs and will be looking for consolidation and savings of their tenancies.