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…]

Commercial Property: The Changing Retail Scene

<span class=THERE WAS an article in The Age last Saturday (BusinessDay) — which provided some fascinating insights into Australia’s retail scene.

Based upon GPT’s national portfolio, some interesting long-term trends are taking shape. And while GPT’s overall earnings actually rose by 7% over the past year … it required a fair amount of “fancy footwork” to achieve that. [Read more…]

How Can Commercial Property Investors Make Any Sense of the Retail Scene?

What's needed is some Retail TherapyACCORDING to the Australian Retailers Association, its members are projecting $39.5 billion in sales from mid-November until Christmas — reflecting an overall increase of just 2% on last year.

Many shoppers still remain extremely hesitant, despite the RBA’s recent interest rate reduction.

Although, with household savings at record levels … people may simply be holding back on their main splurge splurge, until the post-Christmas sales. [Read more…]

Retailing Isn’t Totally Dead …
It Has Simply Changed

The Winery by Gazebo an Crown Street, Surry HillsIn last week’s article, you read a general overview of the Retail sector … and some of the issues currently confronting traders.

Let’s now take a quick look at three of the capital cities. [Read more…]

Industrial Property
Stages a Strong Surge

The market for Industrial property in Melbourne has remained strong over the past 12 months — enjoying a solid demand from tenants, owner occupiers and potential investors alike.

According to Savills Australia, leasing activity for the twelve months to 30 June this year was up by more than 7% on the five-year average for Melbourne.

The dominant tenants clearly came from the retail and logistics sectors — with over 740,000 square metres being leased. And of that amount, just over 200,000 square metres was by way of pre-commitment.

And according to recent research by Colliers International, the current level of rentals and capital values showed increases of between 5% and 18% across the Metropolitan area, during the last financial year. [Read more…]

A Word of Caution!

My apologies for not posting any articles for the past week or so … but I sneaked away to Noosa with Jenny for a short break.

Anyway, I’ll make it up to you with two articles for this week.

Firstly, about Retail …

Not enough Retail TherapyYou’ve been aware of my general concern with the Retail sector over the past few years. And that’s because the fundamentals are out of alignment.

Of all the sectors within the Commercial market, most people feel comfortable with Retail. And that’s only natural — because all your family members are usually going in out of shops, as part of their everyday life.

However, familiarity with something doesn’t always make for good investment decisions.

And yet, investors continue to out-bid one another — quite prepared to accept yields as low as 3% per annum, for some Retail investment properties. [Read more…]

Commercial Sales Gain Momentum

AuctioAuctioneer's gavelneer's gavel
Around Australia, Commercial clearance rates at auction are now about on par with Residential property — averaging at around 50%.

Victoria seems to be leading the way, with Commercial clearance rates for some types of property approaching 70%.

New South Wales is running about six months behind at? around 60%, with firming yields. And Queensland is probably a further 12 to 18 months away in its recovery. [Read more…]

Retail Reality

Wallet Workout
As this graph shows, there has been a strong long-term relationship between unemployment and retail vacancies.

And were you to base your Investment decisions on this measure alone, you could be forgiven for assuming there will be a healthy couple of years ahead of the retail sector as a whole.
[Read more…]