Colliers International has just released their April commercial property Research Report for New Zealand.
The findings of our recently published Auckland Metropolitan Office Report are consistent with our other research papers over the last year. Reducing supply, reducing demand, reducing values. About the only thing that hasn’t reduced is vacancy. The trend in vacancy levels is an early indicator of value movement, so that while, for example, an overall city fringe vacancy rate of 6.3% is still quite low historically, the fact that it increased by 10% (from 5.7%) during 2008 is significant. More alarmingly, the North Shore’s overall office vacancy was as low as the city fringe at the end of 2007 but has since shot up to 10.6%, the highest since our surveys began in 1995.
While Wellington and Auckland CBD’s are holding up quite well to date, we forecast double digit vacancy in both centres as the crop of new buildings under construction are filled. This is good news for tenants but not for landlords. These rises indicate a period of static or falling rental and capital values, particularly for lower grade and poorly located properties. The recent rash of office sales in Wellington however, demonstrates considerable confidence among investors, despite creeping vacancy in the CBD.
Click here to read the full report in PDF format.
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Sales,
Retail,
Industrial,
Valuation and Advisory Services,
Corporate Solutions,
Research & Consultancy,
Auckland Office,
Wellington Office,
Christchurch Brokerage,
Dhilan Balia,
Alan McMahon