Brisbane Office Market Vacancy at Six Year Lows

Solid demand for office space continues to see vacancy rates fall, with the Brisbane CBD now at its lowest level of vacancy since 2013.

Brisbane recorded approximately 16,000sq m of commitments across its CBD and metro regions in the first half this year.

Vacancy across the CBD dropped from 12.9 per cent to 11.9 per cent over the first half of 2019.

While vacancy in Brisbane’s fringe fell from 15.7 per cent to 13.8 per cent over the same period, reveals the Property Council of Australia’s latest Office Market Report.

A-grade stock located on Brisbane’s fringe has seen increasing demand over the first half-this year, particularly for A-grade assets.

“The Brisbane office market is clearly in the midst of a good recovery, with confidence that demand will continue to grow and strong investment underway in new office projects,” Property Council Queensland executive director Chris Mountford said.

Flexible working

Despite the lack of available large scale space, flexible workspace operators are expected to add to the reduction of Brisbane’s vacancy rate through 2019 and 2020.

Colliers International forecasts that co-working operators could take up approximately 28,250sq m of space in the CBD this year.

“Major players in this space such as IWG and WeWork are expanding within Brisbane as the competitive rents allow them to make a bigger footprint for less capital expenditure,” Colliers International associate director Nick Davies said.

“With a substantial number of new office developments which have been approved or looking for pre-commitment, operators will be looking to take pre-commitment for this space that is due for completion around the late 2021 to late 2022, such as Midtown Centre, 80 Ann Street and 360 Queen Street.”

US co-working operator WeWork secured its third Brisbane location last week, with two floors of 25 King Street on Brisbane's city fringe suburb Fortitude Valley.