February 15th REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Weekly search volumes are stabilising, though remain well up year-on-year.

After rising steadily since the beginning of the year, commercial property search volumes stabilised over the last week in both the ‘For Sale’ and ‘For Lease’ sections of realcommercial.com.au.

Despite recording just a 0.2% increase in ‘For Sale’ searches this week, volumes were well up (27.7%) compared with the 12 months prior.

Recording the largest annual increase in for sale searches was the Northern Territory (45.8%), followed by New South Wales (18.8%) and Queensland (15.5%).

Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory were the only states to record a year-on-year decline, with sale searches down 4% and 0.9% respectively.

After trending upwards since the end of December, growth in ‘For Lease’ searches tapered off over the last week, recording just a 0.1% increase in volumes.

Relative to a year ago, however, for lease searches were up 30.2% nationally, with the greatest rises seen in Tasmania (28.2%), New South Wales (19.2%) and Victoria (16.7%).

For lease searches have increased year-on-year in all states with the exception of the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory, where volumes were down 12.3% and 10.9% respectively.

While sentiment in Australia’s commercial property sector had been recovering after the near eradication of COVID-19, recent localised outbreaks resulting in snap lockdowns may be shaking confidence in the sector, highlighting the ongoing risk for both owners and occupiers.