REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report

Searches to buy commercial property were relatively stable over the week, while lease searches have declined.

Over the past week, ‘for sale’ searches on realcommercial.com.au were largely unchanged at a national level, though remain 25.7% higher than last year’s volumes.

Despite holding steady overall, buy searches were up in Tasmania (2.4%), the Australian Capital Territory (2.3%) and New South Wales (0.5%) over the week. These rises were offset by declines in the remaining states, with Queensland recording the largest fall (-1.5%).

An improvement in economic conditions and business confidence have supported higher levels of buyer activity compared to 12 months ago. This is reflected in the volume of ‘for sale’ searches, which are well above last year’s levels in most states.

Searches to lease commercial property decreased by 2.2% over the past week, driven by particularly strong declines in Tasmania (-9.1%) and Victoria (-6%). Comparing year-on-year, however, lease searches are up 3.8%.

Year-on-year movement in lease searches shows mixed movement across the states. The Northern Territory has seen the strongest 12-month growth in ‘for lease’ searches, at 7.6%, with increases also seen in South Australia (5.6%), Queensland (5.2%) and Tasmania (4.2%). All other states have seen their lease search volumes decline.

With Victoria’s lockdown preventing inspections, search volumes slow over the coming week. In contrast, growth in year-on-year search volumes in Victoria may start to trend up as we head into June given the state’s second wave of 2020 began unfolding at this time.