July 6th REA Insights Weekly Commercial Property Search Report, 2020

Searches for commercial properties, both for purchase and lease, fell last week 

Searches for commercial properties for sale fell again last week, with the -1.7 per cent drop marking the largest weekly fall in searches in 15 weeks.

Each state recorded a fall in for sale searches on realcommercial.com.au, with Queensland and New South Wales recording the smallest falls, while the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory recorded the largest.

Although there have been some recent weekly falls in searches for commercial properties for sale, the volume of searches last week was 88.8 per cent higher than the recent low and 9.8 per cent higher than a year ago.

When it comes to year-on-year change, Tasmania (-11.1 per cent) and Northern Territory (-7.6 per cent) have been the weakest states/territories, while Australian Capital Territory (28%) and South Australia (30.9%) have been the strongest.

Turning to searches for properties for lease, search volumes fell for the second consecutive week last week, down -3.6 per cent following a fairly large -4.1 per cent fall over the previous week.

Falls were recorded across all states with Northern Territory and Victoria leading the decline, while New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory recorded the more modest drops.

Lease search volumes have surged since their recent low, up 157 per cent, and they are 19.5 per cent higher than they were at the same time in 2019.

The greatest year-on-year increases in lease search volumes have been recorded in Tasmania (30.6%) and New South Wales (22.6%) while the smallest increases have occurred in Northern Territory (1.7%) and Australian Capital Territory (7.4%).

Given many businesses will be looking at making cost saving through the COVID-19 recovery we expect solid interest in commercial properties to continue.

However, the next few weeks will be interesting.

Parts of Victoria are returning to lockdown and while this is a localised issue at the moment it is likely to have repercussions for consumer and business confidence.

With that in mind the impact could really go one of two ways. Firstly it could result in fewer searches as people are reminded of other important things through this global pandemic or it could make businesses more resolute about reducing costs and lead to an increase in search.

Whatever happens we expect interest in commercial properties to remain heightened as businesses look at ways to make savings over the coming months.