November 23rd REA Insights Weekly Commercial Search Report, 2020
The volumes of searches for properties on realcommercial.com.au fell again last week.
There was a -3.6 per cent fall in searches for properties for sale last week, which was the largest fall in seven weeks and took volumes to the lowest they’ve been in six weeks.
Searches for commercial properties for sale fell in all states last week with the smallest falls in Victoria (-1.6%) and New South Wales (-3.4%) and the largest in Northern Territory (-11.2%)and South Australia (-13.1%), which was under lockdown.
Buyer search volumes have fallen over recent weeks, at the end of last week they were only -5.2 per cent lower than their historic-high.
Buyer search volumes are closest to their peak last week in Western Australia (-4.0%) and Victoria (-6.7%) and furthest away in Australian Capital Territory (-27.6%) and South Australia (-19.0%).
Although there have been some recent weekly declines in buyer search volumes, they have risen by 21.9 per cent relative to a year ago and are higher across all states.
The largest year-on-year increases have been recorded in Northern Territory (133%) and Australian Capital Territory (39.9%) and the smallest in Victoria (14.3%) and New South Wales (14.6%).
The trends in the year-on-year change in for sale searches are generally trending lower with Victoria one of the main exceptions.
After a large increase over the previous week, there was a -2.7 per cent fall in lease search volumes last week across the nation.
Lease search volumes rose last week in Victoria (1.8%), Tasmania (6.8%) and Northern Territory (5.3%), but fell elsewhere, with a large fall in South Australia (-20.6%) due to the lockdown and Queensland (-5.6%).
Following the decline last week, lease search volumes ended up -8.9 per cent lower than their historic peak.
The largest overall declines in lease search volumes have been recorded in South Australia (-29.1%) and Australian Capital Territory (-25.9%) and the smallest in Northern Territory (-5.6%) and Victoria (-9.6%).
Year-on-year lease search volumes last week were 25 per cent higher than a year ago. However, the trend is towards the year-on-year change reducing.
South Australia is the only state with fewer lease searches than a year ago (-7.0%) while Tasmania (35.6%) and Northern Territory (30.4%) have recorded the greatest increases.
Victoria and Tasmania are the only states in which the year-on-year change in lease search volumes are trending higher.
At this time of year we tend to find that search volumes fall away from now until the beginning of the New Year and it looks likely that these trends will play out again.
While search volumes are likely to trend lower, it seems most likely that they will remain much more elevated than a year ago, with 2021 looking like an interesting year for the market.
As businesses re-open and welcome back staff I continue to expect a reassessment of businesses accommodation needs and therefor would expect search volumes for properties listed on realcommercial.com.au to once again be strong in 2021.
