Melbourne was the nation’s strongest performer for industrial property in 2016, recording a 15 per cent increase in property deals for the year.
While the total spend on industrial property fell across the whole country last year, from $5.26 billion to $4.83 billion, in Melbourne it surged 15 per cent from the previous year, to $1.92 billion.
The figures come from CBRE and their industrial agent Rory Hilton told The Sydney Morning Herald it was a strong year for offshore investment in Melbourne’s industrial and logistics market.
“There are unprecedented levels of both domestic and offshore capital seeking industrial assets in all of Melbourne’s core industrial precincts,” he said.
Sentiment around commercial property in Australia as a whole has also gone up, according to National Australia Bank’s Commercial Property Index.
The index has risen five points to +21 in the final quarter last year and means sentiment around commercial property is the highest it has been since the survey started in 2010.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster said the improved index rating was down to improvements in CBD hotels and to a lesser extent the office sector.
“While we continue to see an uneven performance across sectors, the performance of CBD hotels has more than offset the lower sentiment that we’re seeing in both retail and industrial markets,” he told Australian Broker.
“Confidence has also wavered in all sectors, except CBD hotels where it rose sharply among very strong expectations for occupancy, capital and revenue per available room growth.”
Victoria and New South Wales have the strongest sentiment in the land for commercial property currently, while it is very weak in Western Australia.
