Below is the commercial and industrial leasing for the months of July and August as listed on realestate.co.nz. There were 38 new properties listed for lease in August 2020, down dramatically from 70 in July. Despite the Covid doom and gloom, compared to August 2019 there were less listings.
There are a number of listing being 'refreshed' which were offered to the market earlier in the year which have not yet leased. These listing are excluded from our analysis.
With regards to sales listings there were a total of 21 listings in July with 12 being priced or by negotiation and only 9 being auction/deadline/tender listings. August has a total of 19 new listings with a swing in preference toward deadline and tender sales tactics with these accounting for 13 of the listings.
Listing are up marginally on August 2019 but not excessively.
This week, I attended a webinar with ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner. Her thoughts in relation to the New Zealand economy can be summed up as:
- The following months will be difficult, especially for the tourism market. Whilst a lot of businesses have fared well over the initial lock-down period without incoming tourists numbers a lot of businesses will be faced with the prospect of laying off staff.
- Despite the property market looking buoyant, the impacts of such 'crisis' can take a long time to reflect within the market. That is to say, like the Global Financial Crisis, the effects on the property market might be delayed, as such valuers should still be tagging the 'Significant Valuation Uncertainty' within their reports.