February 22nd REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Searches to buy commercial property hit a new high last week as the market gathers pace.

Search volumes on the ‘For Sale’ section of realcommercial.com.au hit yet another record last week, surging a further 5.4%.

Nationally, buyer search volumes are now 35.1% higher than 12 months ago, with New South Wales (13.9%) and Queensland (11.8%) the largest contributors to annual growth.

Conversely, buyer searches continued to trend downwards in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, with year-on-year volumes down 23.8% and 14.7% respectively.

While buyer volumes have continued to trend upwards, ‘For Lease’ search volumes were stable over the past week, recording just a 0.1% rise nationally.

Compared to 12 months ago, commercial lease searches are up 30.1% overall, although it’s a mixed bag across the states.

Recording the strongest growth in lease searches over the past 12 months were New South Wales (17.6%) and Tasmania (17.1%), with more modest levels of growth seen in Queensland (11.3%) and Victoria (7.7%).

Again, the Northern Territory saw a decline in commercial lease searches, down 14.3% year-on-year. South Australia (-7.5%) and Western Australia (-5.1%) have also seen a decline in lease searches.