9 A RECENT CCBR survey has found that there are over fifteen retail and commercial vacancies in the Gosford CBD with most vacant for over five years. Past and prospective tenants, when contacted by CCBR said that owners and property managers were asking rentals way above the market. Built over seventy years ago when Gosford was a thriving regional country town, most of these properties are in poor condition and not good working environments. However owners refuse to carry out the necessary repairs to bring them up to a minimum standard but are still demanding Sydney rental rates. What most owners don’t seem to understand is that taking less than what they perceive as market rent at least gives them some income. One agent who has most of the vacant properties for lease or for sale is Daniel Mason from Chapman & Frazer Commercial Real Estate. “In my view, the situation is both simple and complex, at the same time. It’s simple in that an effective strategy would be for owners to work with any reasonable prospective tenants, offering very attractive rents and incentives in order to (a) get their vacancies filled, and (b) give adequate incentive and support for a business to ‘have a go’ and get established without a huge rental overhead or capital investment. On it’s face, that strategy seems like a “win-win”, however this is where the complexity arises.” “The above strategy may be a workable option for some landlords, but not all. For some landlords, their financial position may not allow them to offer certain incentives to prospective tenants, such as capital expenditure. The other issue is that the values for commercial properties are so often tied to the rents they generate, so if a landlord accepts a below market rent, then they are also likely impacting the theoretical sale value of the property,” Mr Mason said. It is obvious that a majority of property owners in Gosford are absentee landlords with no interest in the future of Gosford and don’t understand that in the long term this will negatively impact the value of their property. However Tony Myers from Oliver Myers Real Estate made an interesting point. “The remedy requires a collaborative approach to “sell” what Gosford has to offer, and that is, High Speed Broadband. Today we all use technology in one form or another, and Gosford can offer a solution and a huge opportunity to businesses who require this facility. More business occupying space in the city centre means more opportunity for other business here as well. It is not something we can do on our own as agents, and I suspect that there are property owners who want to get their properties leased, but no one has either had the time or taken the time to communicate and sell the long-term opportunities on offer. Collectively, if the Chamber of Commerce, Central Coast Council and one or two key commercial agents were to work together I believe a formula could be found to bring business and life back into Gosford,” he said. BUSINESS NEWS Vacancies galore in Gosford as property owners chase Pitt Street rents Agents missing the point when promoting Gosford commercial properties It is now ten years since Gosford and surrounding suburbs were connected to the National Broadband Network and yet few people, and least of all local real estate agents understand the value of this International standard communications infrastructure. One company that saw the value of Ultra-Fast broadband speeds is 4b Media who relocated to Gosford soon after it became available. This company employs 20 people. They use around 14 terabytes of data each month and could not operate on a global scale without it. It is time Gosford was promoted as a digital hub offering internet connection that supports advanced technologies such as VoIP, IoT devices, and cloud computing, that optimises a business operational efficiency and scalability. 4b Media headquarters Mann Street, Gosford CENTRAL COAST BUSINESS REVIEW JULY 2024
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