December 14th REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2020

Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty

Commercial property search volumes continue to trend lower as the Christmas break draws near.

Last week, the volume of searches for commercial properties for sale fell by -2 per cent, with activity declining in most states.

Australian Capital Territory (8.3%) and Queensland (0.2%) were the only states where for sale search volumes rose last week, while the largest fall was recorded in Western Australia (-8%).

Buyer search volumes are now -10.1 per cent lower than their historic peak.

However, compared to last year commercial search volumes on the realcommercial.com.au ‘Buy’ section are up 30.7 per cent.

The largest increases year-on-year have been recorded in Northern Territory (148.8%) and Western Australia (42.9%), while the smallest annual increases have been in Tasmania (17.4%) and Victoria (23.9%).

The volume of searches for properties for lease also continues to fall, declining -4.4 per cent last week to reach their lowest volume in eighteen weeks.

Australian Capital Territory (4.8%) was the only state/territory where weekly lease searches rose last week. The biggest declines were in Tasmania (-15%) and Victoria (-7.4%).

Weekly lease search volumes are -14.8 per cent lower than their peak in June, but remain 33.9 per cent higher than this time last year.

The largest year-on-year increases have been recorded in Australian Capital Territory (30.9%), New South Wales (28.6%) and Western Australia (27.7%).

Commercial property searches are expected to continue to decline as we near Christmas. However, given the disruptions causes by COVID-19, it’s likely activity over December and January will remain elevated relative to previous years.