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A commercial agency’s chief executive has shared his thoughts on the “exciting” state of the West Australian economy before forecasting a strong 12 months ahead for the state’s commercial property market.
Reflecting on 2022 to date, Cygnet West CEO Imran Mohiuddin said that the Perth market had been “incredibly resilient” — acknowledging the many challenges that global economies are grappling with.
While COVID-19 has been of concern globally for more than two and a half years now, the executive said the business had been “vocally confident early in the pandemic that our market would weather the disruptions and uncertainties better than most other markets due to the cyclical position we were in at the time; we were emerging from a significant five-year downturn”.
“Relative to other Australian markets, ours was both cheap and efficient, having shed a lot of the fat during the downturn, so any potential impacts were likely to be mild and temporary,” he professed.
Now, the region is reaping the benefits, with Mr Mohiuddin stating that they “have emerged from the past two years with one of the best-performing economies in the world” — least of all with “a stronger office market where vacancy continues to trend lower and rents are creeping higher”.
Elsewhere, in the industrial sector, the CEO noted that vacancy rates are at decade lows, while rental growth “has been one of the strongest we’ve experienced”.
He pointed out that “while higher interest rates have impacted market yield expectations, in most cases, we are seeing rental growth and investor appetite continue to support capital values in these two sectors”.
It’s a little bit of a different story for retail and hotels, which had Mr Mohiuddin labelling the former as “patchy”.
For retail, “some locations and centre types exhibiting strong performance, while others are still impacted by subdued tenant demand”.
While the hotels market is recovering, he does see it as remaining subdued, thanks in part to the weak recovery of international tourism and also due to “significant supply” being added to the market across the last decade.
Even so, the executive said Perth — and Western Australia more broadly — remains “an exciting place”.
“COVID, and the state’s response, together with its economic resilience, has firmed WA’s standing globally,” he iterated.
“The opportunities for industry development, new business, employment, education, and tourism, to name a few, remain prosperous. There is an abundance of new projects planned for Perth and WA, which will, in time, further cement its desirability, liveability and global standing.”
REB has previously reported on Mr Mohiuddin’s decision to take Cygnet West down the independent route, having previously operated under the Colliers International banner.
He told REB that the rebrand is “no longer about being the biggest and the best globally”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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