Melbourne's commercial real estate market has experienced one of its strongest starts to the year, with more than $400 million in property changing hands over a 25 day period.
In what marked an unprecedented 25 day period for Melbourne, 30 deals recently transacted across the city, ranging from a $652,000 shop in Prahran, to the sale of 206 Bourke Street for $116,380,000.
CBRE's Melbourne City Sales and Victorian Retail Investments negotiated the sales, which included transactions in inner Melbourne and the south eastern suburbs, as well as regional locations such as Bendigo and Wodonga.
CBRE State Director, Mark Wizel commented on the recent activity, "Results like we have seen over the past 25 days, and moving into 2016, don't just happen by chance - participants across all sectors of the commercial property market are currently buying with confidence."Mr Wizel said the surge in sales was being fuelled by demand from a wide range of buyers, with resurgence from domestic groups.
"It has been very interesting to note the significant increase in domestic buyers versus buyers from Asia in the last weeks for 2015 and the first week of 2016," Mr Wizel explained.
Lewis Tong, Director of CBRE's Asian Services Desk, said, "Whilst Chinese buyers haven't dominated over the past couple of months, we expect this to change quickly as we move into 2016.""There are some challenges for Chinese buyers at present with most of the issues pertaining to domestic constraints in China, however, many buyers are working through these issues and planning major acquisitions post Chinese New Year."Mr Wizel also said that tenants across the board, from office to retail, were also gaining confidence and subsequently having a positive effect on investor sentiment towards assets in these markets.
"2016 will continue to see a strong pipeline of interest from investors. Whilst previous years have experienced a lag in activity over the first few months, 2016 will be different - there is an uptick in confidence coupled with unsatisfied buyer demand.""The last couple of months have capped off a well-rounded year for our team, transacting somewhere between 280 and 290 properties with an annual sales volume of close to $3 billion," Mr Wizel said, adding that figure was expected to increase by about 20% in 2016.
