February 22nd REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Search volumes for commercial property and continuing to hit new highs
Search volumes for commercial property and continuing to hit new highs

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.