July 12 REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2021

Searches to buy and lease property on realcommercial.com.au bounced back last week.

‘For sale’ searches on realcommercial.com.au increased by 2.4% last week.

Search volumes were up in every state except Queensland, which recorded a slight dip. Compared to last year’s levels, ‘for sale’ searches are now 32.9% higher.

As the states with the highest search volumes, New South Wales and Victoria drove the recovery in ‘for sale’ searches, rising 3.8% and 2.5% respectively.

Comparing year-on-year, searches to buy commercial property are more than 25% higher in every state, with the strongest growth recorded in the Australian Capital Territory (40.8%), the Northern Territory (39.4%) and South Australia (35.7%).

Searches to lease commercial property were also up over the week, rising by 5.2%. Compared to 12 months ago, ‘for lease’ searches are now 12.8% higher.

NSW and Queensland were the largest contributors to the weekly rise in search volumes, recording growth of 6.1% and 9.2% respectively. Tasmania was the only state to see a dip in ‘for lease’ searches over the week, albeit slight at -0.5%.

Tasmania is also the only state to have seen lease searches fall over the past 12 months, with volumes now sitting 9.9% lower.

It’s important to remember this time last year Victoria was entering its second period of lockdown, which is contributing to the unusually high year-on-year growth.

The commercial leasing market typically slows down over the second half of the year, so the growth in search volumes is predicted to moderate over the coming months.

Year-on-year growth, however, is likely to be buoyed by Victoria’s numbers, given search volumes were significantly impacted during the state’s second lockdown between July and October last year.