Office

Many Australian companies are realising the benefits of employees working from home. What does this mean for the office sector in 2021?

Office vacancies have soared to their highest level in almost a quarter of a century as COVID-19 has slashed demand for space at the same time as a wave of new city towers is being completed.

Property developers are stepping up the push for new city towers nationally in the expectation that office staff will return and apartment living will also surge as people are drawn back to city centres in coming years.

While residential purchases are often judged on how they look, commercial property transactions are driven by more practical considerations.

The run of deals at the top end of the office market is beginning to spread to smaller buildings in the CBD and suburbs as direct investors punt that the sector will recover from the coronavirus crisis.

Corporate Australia is making a push to get staff back into offices with landlords seeking to reassure them they will be safe due to extensive precautions taken against coronavirus.

Australia’s commercial property has become even more popular with overseas investors looking at Asia Pacific.

Investment bank Macquarie Group has unveiled the largest property deal of the year by selling an under-construction office tower in the heart of Sydney’s CBD to Investa and Canadian l financial services group Manulife for about $800m.

The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic were not uniformly felt across the commercial property market in 2020, with some sectors emerging more resilient than others.