More than 200 people tuned in to RWC’s July Between the Lines webinar which focussed on Australia’s west coast commercial property market. 

Host, Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader, was joined by RWCWA director of capital markets Brett Wilkins to shed light on how each commercial asset class is performing in Western Australia. 

Mr Wilkins is behind Western Australia’s largest commercial real estate deal, being the sale of Jandakot Airport for $1.3 billion in 2021. 

Mr Wilkins said industrial was still the hottest asset class post-Covid. 

“Vacancy is more or less zero, and there is still good, solid demand,” he said. 

“There is lots of demand off the back of mining and general economic activity. 

“Yields have been blown out but that has been more than overcome by increased rents. 

“There’s strong demand from both owner occupiers and investors. Industrial is holding up really well.” 

Ms Rader said there were not too many large industrial transactions occurring in Western Australia, and asked Mr Wilkins how that end of the market was performing. 

“The majority of Perth industrial is held by families, and a lot of institutions want to spend the money here, and if they could get something of size then they would spend,” Mr Wilkins said. 

While there is some new industrial supply being added to the market, Mr Wilkins said there was a shortage of industrial land. 

“You have to go a long way out of Perth now to get to some of the industrial subdivisions,” he said. 

“There is construction activity happening because the rents and the demand just overcome the obstacles on the construction side of things.” 

When it came to Perth’s office market, Ms Rader said Perth had behaved quite differently when it came to the work-from-home trend which had kept occupancy higher. Mr Wilkins said there was still reasonable demand for office investments. 

“The demand is there, but it’s harder to work out where the values are at today,” he said. 

“We have very high incentives and they haven’t shifted, they’re still averaging 50 per cent. 

“Yields have shifted due to the cost of debt, but there just haven't been many transactions.”

“West Perth is strong with smaller investors and owner occupiers. 

“There has definitely been a flight to quality, and some of the West Perth offices have been keenly sought after. 

“Anything to do with small cap mining, traditionally centred at West Perth, is strong.”

RWC’s July Between the Lines webinar hosted by Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader, was joined by RWCWA director of capital markets Brett Wilkins to shed light on how each commercial asset class is performing in Western Australia. Mr Wilkins is behind Western Australia’s largest commercial real estate deal, being the sale of Jandakot Airport for $1.3 billion in 2021.