March 8 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

For sale and lease search volumes fell last week but remain much higher than a year ago.

For sale search volumes on realcommercial.com.au fell for the second consecutive week last week, down -1.4 per cent.

Although national for sale search volumes were lower, they increased over the week in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

South Australia is the only state in which for sale search volumes were at an historic-high last week.

For sale search volumes are up 37.7 per cent relative to a year ago and they are higher across all states.

The volume of for sale searches on a year-on-year basis is trending higher in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania and is trending lower in Victoria, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.

The year-on-year trend is likely to be stronger over coming weeks as we enter the period from last year in which national lockdowns were occurring and search volumes collapsed.

Lease search volumes fell by -1.8 per cent last week and fell in most states with Victoria and Tasmania the exceptions.

Last week’s lease search volumes were -1.9 per cent lower than their peak nationally and lower in all states.

Although weekly search volumes fell last week, they were 38.1 per cent higher than a year ago nationally.

The year-on-year trend in lease search volumes across the states is higher in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania and lower in Victoria, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.

As is the case with for sale search volumes, lease search volume trends on a year-on-year basis are expected to be exacerbated over the coming weeks due to the comparison with the initial lockdowns occurring last year at which time search volumes fell dramatically.