March 22 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Australia’s commercial market continues its recovery with search volumes continuing to track upwards for both ‘Buy’ and ‘Lease’.

Over the past week, searches to buy commercial property increased by 5% on realcommercial.com.au to reach the highest weekly volume on record.

Compared to the 12 months prior, ‘For sale’ searches were up 112.1%, reflecting the beginnings of the impact of COVID-19 over March 2020.

Buy searches increased in every state over the past week, excepting South Australia where volumes held steady. The largest weekly rises were seen in the Australian Capital Territory (17.8%) and New South Wales (11.7%), with growth in Victoria (1.9%), Queensland (4.1%) and Western Australia (6.6%) at more modest levels.

‘For lease’ search volumes for commercial property also reached a new record, rising 3.8% over the past week and up 125.4% from levels seen 12 months ago.

Leading the increase in lease searches were the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania, where volumes were up 16.6% and 15.6% respectively week-on-week.

New South Wales (3.3%), Victoria (4.5%) and South Australia (4.6%) also saw reasonably strong weekly growth, while the Northern Territory was the only state to record a decline (-1.6%) in searches over the past week.

The upward trend in search volumes is a positive signal for the recovery of commercial property, as businesses start to regain confidence.