Weekday visitation to certain Melbourne CBD districts is on the rise as the capital’s post-pandemic recovery ramps up.
According to data from Pathzz, this included weekday visits to the Docklands precinct increasing by 49.9 per cent between August and September 2022.
The platform, which is backed by CBRE, uses artificial intelligence to process several data sets to find trends and patterns in consumer behaviour. One such set aggregates the number of times mobile phone towers receive signals from phones, helping to indicate how many people are in a particular location at a specific time.
The data also indicates increases for Melbourne’s other main office precincts—the eastern core, up 39.1 per cent, and the western core, 36.1 per cent up.
CBRE’s Victorian office leasing head Ashley Buller said the figures made sense.
“The Pathzz data is a positive sign for Melbourne, particularly given that Docklands accommodates the CBD’s largest office tenants,” Buller said.
Covid and the ensuing lockdowns as well as the shift in attitudes to working from home has made it uncertain how, when and if workers would return to offices at pre-pandemic levels.
Melbourne’s CBD has also seen a knock-on effect with many CBD-based businesses affected and campaigns launched to bring people back into the city.
The Property Council of Australia’s survey reported that office occupancy levels in Melbourne had only increased from 39 to 41 per cent during October 2022.
Buller said the increase in numbers of workers returning was affecting tenant demand.
“[A] shift is occurring, with this latest data showing that workers are returning to the office in greater numbers,” Buller said.
“This is flowing through to increased tenant demand, and we currently have four 10,000sqm+ tenants assessing the market, with indications that more large tenant briefs are in the wings.”
Smaller businesses have been more agile in adapting to changing circumstances and returning to the CBD, according to CBRE’s Victorian office occupier head Diarmuid Killeen.
“While larger tenants have been slower to return, these larger organisations would like to see improved occupancy in their offices to drive collaboration, innovation and build culture, and many are now incentivising their staff to come back to the office more than 50 per cent of the time,” Killeen said.
Melbourne’s main retail precinct, civic, also saw an increase in visitation, albeit smaller than the office precincts.
The north-eastern core of the CBD saw the highest proportion of night time visitors as it has the most restaurants and theatres.
Weekend visitation was lowest for the eastern and western cores of the CBD.
CBRE’s research director Kate Bailey said this was likely due to the precincts having fewer permanent residents and retail, and that bringing workers back to the CBD would help support these areas.
