Brisbane is Australia’s second most attractive city to buy commercial property, pushing Melbourne into third place, data from CBRE reveals.
While Sydney remained the preferred market for domestic investors in 2016, with 45 per cent declaring the most attractive city for property investment — down one per cent from 2016 — Queensland’s capital overtook Melbourne, as the next most popular location to purchase commercial property, with 26 per cent of respondents back it.
Like Sydney, the proportion of investors deeming the Victorian capital as their preferred city to invest in dropped by one per cent to 18 per cent in 2016.
Of the top three commercial property sectors to invest in, retail has become the most popular, with an 11 per cent swing to the category, as 34 per cent of Australian investors reported it as their preferred option.
The Australian office market has also grown in popularity, with 31 per cent of investors surveyed reporting it was their number one choice of commercial property assess, while last year’s top sector, industrial, has experienced a significant decline in popularity — falling nine per cent, with just 21 per cent of respondents claiming it was their number one choice.
The survey also revealed that there has been a decline in Australian investors’ appetite for commercial real estate, with 37 per cent reporting that they planned to buy more property in 2016 — down from 51 per cent in 2015 — while 38 per cent said they were likely to sell over the next 12 months.
