August 23 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Ongoing lockdowns resulted in search activity on realcommercial.com.au dropping further last week.

Increasingly stringent lockdown measures appear to be impacting demand for commercial property, with the volume of ‘Buy’ and ‘Lease’ searches falling in every state and territory last week.

Buyer searches fell by 6.8% last week, though remain 12.8% above last year’s levels.

The Australian Capital Territory, which is experiencing its highest COVID-19 case numbers since the pandemic began, saw the largest drop in buyer searches last week, falling 19.6%. Victoria and New South Wales followed, with weekly declines of 9.9% and 8.6% respectively.

Searches to lease commercial property were also down across Australia’s states and territories, driving a national decline of 7.1% over the week, and a 12.5% decline over the year.

As with buyer searches, the Australian Capital Territory saw the largest weekly fall in lease searches, which were down 32.2% from the previous week. Following was Victoria, which recorded an 11% drop in lease searches last week.

Compared to 12 months ago, lease searches are lower in every state except Victoria, which was the only state in lockdown at this time last year.

The fact that searches have fallen even in the states not currently in lockdown, points to growing uncertainty by businesses across the country. The highly contagious Delta strain has increased the risk of outbreaks, as well as the length and severity of the lockdowns needed to contain it. This is likely to impact demand for commercial property until the vaccination thresholds required for reopening are met.