WA border reopening met with optimism
Western Australia’s border reopening has ignited positive sentiment among commercial property market stakeholders.
With the return of interstate and overseas arrivals from today (3 March), Knight Frank head of Western Australia Craig Dawson said: “We expect more vendors to list their properties as it is anticipated there will be a bigger buyer pool with more people able to come into Perth.”
According to Mr Dawson, the higher-value CBD office buildings market bore the brunt of border closure as properties were left unsold. Buyers of this asset class, who typically come from eastern Australia or south-east Asia, were locked out of the state.
Now that the pandemic tide has turned, Mr Dawson claimed investors are keen on venturing into the Western Australian market due to strong fundamentals.
“We expect there will be an influx of investors coming to look at properties in WA, not only because they physically can now, but because of the economic strength of our state,” he said.
“We have a strong and stable economy, with the mining sector continuing to perform well and a gradual decline in Perth’s office vacancy rate.”
Mr Dawson acknowledged a similar uptick in activity across other states due to borders reopening, but he was quick to point out Perth’s edge over the eastern states.
Aside from a robust economy, he highlighted “the affordability factor, with the yield spread remaining attractive compared to east coast markets” as tempting investors into the market.
Despite COVID-19 just starting to spread in Western Australia, Mr Dawson maintains a positive outlook that cases will peak towards the end of March and will quickly return to normal in a relatively short period, similar to trends in other states.
“We haven’t seen the full effect of COVID yet, but arguably, WA is more prepared than any other state was, with high vaccination rates, and there is a sense that we are getting on with it,” he concluded.
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