Commercial Property: The Suburban Office Market

The Suburban Office market is currently your best choiceRIGHT NOW, the Sydney suburban market is trending sideways. And that’s rather good news, because the general consensus was it was about to slump.

While its vacancy rate sits at 9.6%, there is little new space coming onto the market over the next couple of years. [Read more…]

Commercial Property Snapshot: Retail Within The Melbourne CBD

LAST TUESDAY, you gained some insights into the changing Retail scene, for Commercial property around Australia.

According to some recent research by JLL & CBRE (BusinessDay: 29 Feb 2012), these trends are clearly starting to emerge within the Melbourne CBD.

The current vacancy rate is hovering at around 1%. And in part, this is due to the Growing number of people living and working within central Melbourne.

However, part of the reason behind this also lies in the recent entry into the market of several major overseas retailers. [Read more…]

12 Fundamentals You Need to Follow … When Buying Commercial Property

There are 12 Rules you need to follow to successAS YOU WILL appreciate, being able to sleep at night is one of the key objectives for any Commercial property investor.

And that’s what many property investors refer to as staying below your “Threshold of Insomnia”.

There can be several things that might cause you to lose sleep. One is over-borrowing; and the others are making a poor assessment of the market and the property itself. [Read more…]

Commercial Property to Benefit From Structural Changes Within the Economy

Industry Restructure is necessary for Australia's long-term growth.IN CASE you missed the lead story in last Friday’s Financial Review … the Treasury secretary (Martin Parkinson) was outspokenly critical of the government’s recent handouts to the car industry.

And more particularly, given the recent strong growth in the unemployment figures.

In his view, taxpayers ought not be subsidising so-called “strategic industries” — when these represent inevitable structural changes, which need to occur in order to make Australia more productive in the long-term. [Read more…]

How Commercial Property Investors Benefitted From The Past 7 Days?

The Reserve Bank believes things are on the up.LAST TUESDAY, the RBA left the cash rate on hold — much to the surprise of most pundits. And yet, only the week before, that’s exactly what I suggest would happened.

You might also remember I suggested that you lock in a fixed rate mortgage — because it was then about 1% below the variable mortgage rate.

Many scoffed, and said that rates will continue to come down. Well, the past 7 days have certainly put paid to that theory — with the big 4 Banks raising their rates, quite out of step with the RBA. [Read more…]

National Office Market Shows Steady Improvement

LAST WEEK, the Property Council of Australia released its Office Space survey, for the 6 months to January 2012. And this will have some interesting implications for the Commercial property market.

National Vacancy Rates have fallen over the past 6 monthsAcross the 26 markets depicted in this chart … demand was up 20% up and supply 30% down, on the 20-year average for the six-monthly period.

As you can see, total vacancies fell from 9.0% to 7.9% — the lowest since January 2009. And perhaps a quick summary of the CBD Office markets would be worthwhile. [Read more…]

Commercial Property: Global Influence?

Things are picking up within the US EconomyTHE LAST quarter of 2011 saw a definite improvement in the US economy — with consumer spending up, and companies finally replenishing their inventories.

GDP increased by an annualised 3%, with improved sales for durable goods and new homes.

Petrol prices have been cheaper, since mid-2011; and the US jobless rate was the lowest in nearly 3 years.

Therefore, with improved employment figures, consumers have felt more comfortable spending — which represents around 70% of US economic activity. [Read more…]

Commercial Property: What Makes for a Balanced Office Market?

EVERY capital city has both a CBD and suburban Office market. And as you can appreciate, keeping tabs on all the various suburban markets is almost an impossible task for most investors.

But generally speaking, the health (or otherwise) of the CBD Office markets within each capital city will provide you with a fairly good gauge of the overall Office scene around Australia.

Accordingly, this graph will provide you with a clear picture of what has occurred over the past 4 years.

As a rule of thumb, Office markets are said to the “in balance”, when their Vacancy Rate lies between 5% and 7%. [Read more…]

Commercial Property: Things You Need to Know

You cannot go anywhere nowadays, without somebody offering you their advice about Commercial property.

And it’s hard to know whether they are giving you good information, or just passing on ideas they have picked up on from rather dubious sources.

A thorough Due Diligence is so importantBut once you understand that Commercial property and Residential property completely different, you then begin to understand how the commercial market actually works.

That’s why these articles are intended to give you the real information — to help you become an expert on the subject.

So let’s start with doing homework properly. [Read more…]

Do Banks Use a Formula When Lending on Commercial Property?

Getting the Money you need for your Loan

BANKS have a variety of ways of analysing a Commercial property; but there are a few guidelines they all tend to use.

For them, the most important number is the property’s Net Operating Income — which is basically rental minus expenses. As simple as that may seem, the calculation can vary dramatically from lender to lender.

Calculating the Net Operating Income is fairly straightforward. [Read more…]

Industrial Property Set to Surge

Industrial Vacancy Rates are fallingThe Queensland economy may be slow to recover from all its natural disasters. But it’s Industrial property sector has been quick out of the blocks.

The boom in Queensland gas now has Brisbane with the lowest vacancy rate for Industrial property.

Next comes Melbourne — with Sydney well back in 3rd place, according to a recent survey by Knight Frank.

And increasing demand will put further upwards pressure on rentals … thereby, encouraging more developers into the market. [Read more…]