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…]
Looking Up
As you can see, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index increased strongly by 9.5% for June.
And that means it has now leapt by some 23% since May — the largest 2-month increase for over 30 years.
First-home buyers have also been active, accounting for nearly 30% of all loans during May.
And this overall level of confidence follows an increase in retail sales, for three months in a row.
[Read more…]
But for the most of 2008, Australia has basically experienced what you might term a Goldilocks market for Commercial property … “not too hot, and not too cold!”
Despite Office, Retail and Industrial being near the top of their cycles … the global turmoil has prevented the usual runaway activity occurring — in most capital Cities.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that consumers are cutting back on their spending around Australia. And it’s likely that luxury items and overseas travel will be the most affected.
A recent article in The Age expounded “The Flight to Value” — where Australian Property Monitors reported a 24% drop in the median price for Toorak Homes, in the 6 months to September.
[Read more…]
Australia wide, the level of Retail construction was up by some 17% for the 12-month period to June 2007.
In the main, this involved extensions to existing suburban Shopping Centres; plus some new construction in many of the growth corridors.
[Read more…]
