Retail demand heats up on the Gold Coast

Gold-Coast-commercial-property-ColliersGold Coast commercial property valued from $2 million to $10 million has had a significant uplift in sales volumes in comparison to five years ago, with private local investors dominating the purchases, followed by owner occupiers.

The retail sector was the second best performing sector with sales volumes increasing by 41.8 per cent to $75.448 million over the five-year period. Retail warehouses also increased in sales from $6.5 million to $36.3 million over the same period.

“Strong tourism industry coupled with above average population growth rate and well performing residential sector over the last year has helped support the retail investment market on the Gold Coast,” said Darrell Irwin, director in charge at Colliers International on the Gold Coast.

The best performing sector was industrial, with the sales volumes increasing by 50 per cent over the five-year period to $82.79 million.

“Driving this demand of late has been an upswing in the Gold Coast economy, especially the tourism and construction sectors,” said Irwin. “Other industries which are active in this market are automotive, health and medical, marine, and small to medium enterprises (SME’s).

“The Gold Coast has the highest number of SME’s per head of capita Australia-wide. It is easy to see how this flows onto the heightened demand for industrial property from all buyer groups, particularly from owner occupiers who are generally willing to pay a premium.”

Colliers latest research found yields have also compressed during the five-year period and anticipates continued strong demand across the commercial property sectors until December 2018.

Helen Swanson, research manager at Colliers International said they have recorded $225.85 million worth of sales across office, retail and industrial sectors for 2016/17, a 43 per cent increase from 2011/12.

“The total dollar volume of transactions increased across the retail and industrial sectors whilst the office sector was slightly lower than 2011/12, due to lack of stock on hand rather than slowing demand,” she said.

“There is currently fierce competition from privates, self-managed super funds and syndicates for all forms of commercial assets that are strategically located and offer a positive cash flow.”

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