Melbourne takes the status of being the largest CBD office market in Australia

MELBOURNE, 04 AUGUST 2020 – A total of 313,700 sqm of Premium and A-Grade projects in the past six months has given Melbourne’s CBD a new milestone of the largest CBD office market in Australia, according to JLL Research.

In Q2 2020, JLL Research found that the Melbourne CBD’s total office stock was 4,953,033 sqm. Now, with the practical completions of three new major developments this month, the Melbourne CBD reaches a new stock total of 5,107,840 sqm. Sydney’s total office stock for Q2 2020 was 5,024,240 sqm.

The three office completions crowning Melbourne as the largest office CBD in Australia include the following developments:

1. Cbus Property and Keppel REIT’s Victoria Police Centre at 311 Spencer Street, including 65,000 sqm of office space
2. The Lendlease Two Melbourne Quarter at 697 Collins Street, including 46,350 sqm of office space
3. Dexus 80 Collins Street, including 42,960 sqm of office space

JLL’s Managing Director (Victoria) - Craig Shute said, “The completion of these three projects marks a real inflection point in the dynamics of Australian CBD’s. Melbourne is now the largest Australian city in terms of commercial office space and given the growth trajectory in the JLL chart below, this status is unlikely to change. This rapid rise is testament to Melbourne’s balanced economic drivers and will result in an increase of national and global investment capital seeking a foothold or looking to expand their portfolios in the city. We are confident Melbourne will rebound relatively strongly as we recover from the current COVID-19 restrictions and re-open for business.”

Other projects completed in the Melbourne CBD earlier this year include Mirvac and Suntec REIT’s Olderfleet building at 477 Collins Street (56,584 sqm), Charter Hall’s Wesley Place at 130 Lonsdale Street (55,000 sqm) and Cbus Property and ISPT’s Collins Arch at 447 Collins Street (47,517sqm).

Yet, whilst a large amount of supply is being delivered to the market, there is very little vacancy, with 94% of the 313,700 sqm office stock being delivered in 2020 already pre-committed, according to JLL Research.

JLL’s Senior Research Director (Victoria) - Annabel McFarlane said, “JLL has been tracking office stock in Melbourne’s CBD office market since 1970, when the size of the market was just 1.45 million sqm. The most significant contribution to this growth has been Docklands as a new CBD precinct, delivering just over 1 million sqm of new, high quality office stock and pushing Melbourne to now Australia’s largest CBD office market, just larger than Sydney’s CBD office market,” she said.

Ms McFarlane continued, “Significant momentum and strong demand throughout the last 20 years has supported office market development. Melbourne’s CBD office market has accounted for 40% of all CBD net absorption (1.7 million sqm) in the six CBD markets we track. This compares to Sydney (739,900 sqm), Canberra (647,600 sqm), Brisbane (542,850 sqm), Perth (293,700 sqm) and Adelaide (291,300 sqm).”

Melbourne and Sydney’s CBD office markets are comparable in size to several major international CBD office markets including Madrid which stands at 6.5 million sqm, Barcelona at 4.9 million sqm and Berlin at 4.5 million sqm.

NOTE: JLL Research includes the Southbank Riverside (228,040 sqm) stock with CBD office stock, while the PCA classify the Southbank Riverside precinct as fringe.