The Property Council of Australia’s latest occupancy survey revealed that workers are gradually returning to the CBD’s as health restrictions are rolled back. The back to office trend is a positive sign for the battered hospitality and retail businesses that thrive on CBD foot traffic.
Melbourne saw its occupancy rate jump to the highest level since the survey began, recording 35% occupancy, up from 24% in the final week of February. Whilst Perth followed trend with a post lock-down jump from 65% to 71% occupancy. Similarly, other CBDs such as Sydney, Adelaide and Darwin followed this trend.
Property Council Chief Executive Ken Morrison said that the reactivation of CBDs remains a major opportunity to maintain the momentum of Australia’s economic growth.
“Our CBDs are increasingly becoming reactivated, but we have more work to do before they are once again firing on all cylinders, city centres need to be driving the next stage of economic recovery as government stimulus and support measures wind down.”
“Millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in broader economic activity are reliant on a high level of activity within Australia’s CBDs.”
The survey also revealed that an increasing number of building owners and managers are not expecting to see an increase in occupancy levels within the next three months.
Find out more in the March occupancy data media release.