Where we stand presently is that many owners of commercial property are starting to come through the initial impact that COVID-19 has had on their existing portfolio.

Owners have been working hard it seems to both understand their rights and also understand their tenants business situation, from what we have seen and in our dealings with owners there is an overarching position of support and understanding towards issues facing tenants at present.

The most significant action to date that has assisted owners has been the agreements that many have come to with their financiers around the deferral of interest for a meaningful period of time.

This has meant that owners are likely to not obtain any return on equity they have in an asset but are also not under pressure to meet interest repayments which could potentially have been impossible with the total loss of income coming from properties they own.

Buyers that remain active and capable to acquire new assets are showing a strong tendency at present towards core locations and I would imagine that this is the trend along the Eastern Seaboard with a strong focus on central CBD and immediate CBD fringe properties.

At present, there are no signs across the nation of a heightened level of panic from owners of properties and it is likely that this pattern will remain consistent until much later in the year when the full effects of the COVID-19 virus are better known and the industry takes a deep breath to process and understand those asset types and locations that could be more affected than others.

In what has been a very interesting and unexpected pattern that has been noticed by our team members is the increase in enquiry from Mainland Chinese buyers over the past 3 weeks, whilst their remains issues for Mainland Chinese buyers to move capital out of China due to capital restrictions the early increase in enquiry may be pointing to some change in this space that would be a welcomed shift for our commercial property markets nationally.

- Mark Wizel is a National Director at CBRE.

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