Raine & Horne Commercial

NSW - Port Macquarie Graeme Garrett of Commercial Port Macquarie reports yields across the region of 5.5-6.5% for retail assets, rising to 6.5-7.5% for both industrial and office property. While he expects these yields to remain stable Graeme notes that this could vary in line with pandemic-driven government support. A vacancy rate of 3.0-4.0% is being seen in the area’s industrial market, which Graeme says is experiencing more interest than other asset classes. He explains, “we have owner occupiers and investors looking for stock. Owner occupiers are keen to secure their own premises – with interest rates as low as they are at present, the gap between renting and owning space is not significant.” That said, Graeme says the area is seeing a shortage of industrial assets listed for sale, and adds, “there is plenty of demand as it’s an asset class that is performing – it has much more rent growth compared to retail. Even institutional investors are putting more weighting on industrial space given the demand for warehousing and logistics to support e-commerce.” While online retailing may be buoying the industrial market, it is impacting the retail property market, where vacancies are in the order of 3.0-5.0%. Graeme says that Port Macquarie’s office market is seeing vacancy rates of 4.0-5.0% though he cautions, “the key for office space in our market is disabled access. If a property doesn’t have disabled access, tenants will take longer to look at that space.” 23 - Graeme Garrett ggarrett@rhcpmq.com.au