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Commercial property confidence slips to lowest since June 2009

Commercial property confidence has dipped across virtually all of New Zealand, according to Colliers International's latest quarterly confidence survey.

The survey shows that after recent rises, confidence levels are back on the wane across all sectors and in most regions with the exception of Queenstown and Palmerston North.

Key survey findings;

• Wellington has suffered the biggest dip of all recorded centres, dropping 15% to -33% to become the most negative market in the country.
• Queenstown continues to increase in confidence, up 6% since June to reach -1%
• The industrial sector, which crossed into positive territory for the first time in June in Auckland (+6%) has held steady at +5% but has dipped in all other markets: Wellington has dipped 10 percentage points to -18% and Christchurch has dropped 13 percentage points to -13%.
• Confidence about the next twelve months increased in two regional centres and declined in nine
• The most positive place in the country continues to be Tauranga (+5%), the only place in the country where optimists outnumber pessimists, although they are declining slightly.

One of the most intriguing results from this latest survey is that approximately half of the responses from Christchurch were received before the earthquake. Responses received after the quake were more optimistic than those from before it hit, which we attribute to Cantabrian resilience and a view that it would be difficult for things to get worse.

3200 responses were utilised to construct the survey results.

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