SA MARKET OVERVIEW
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
David Ludlow - Director Sales/Leasing - Collins Bateman
Thank-you for the opportunity to share your insights as part of The Property Development Review publication - walk us through the performance of your business from a State perspective this year, in which divisions have you seen the strongest growth in 2024. Collins Bateman are a boutique offering and have recently grown from 10 to 12 employees. This is off the back of a strong performance in Agency underpinned by a hands-on and intimate approach to our Management Portfolio. We are seeing major growth from property owners who are seeking an alternative to the larger institutional managers who are constantly dealing with high staff turnover and industry ‘red tape’. And then in terms of the key thematics driving investment into your State, what have been the key considerations made by sophisticated investors & developers when deciding where & how to allocate their capital from a real estate standpoint. We are seeing lower leveraged high net worth private investors looking for counter-cyclical opportunities in the market nationally. In South Australia we are still seeing investors looking to capitalise on zero Stamp Duty on commercial transactions and as an alternative to hotter east coast markets. Value-add, short WALE properties are what most of the capital is seeking in the industrial sphere. Recently, there’s been a strong re-bound in market activity & transaction volumes-how are you seeing this play out at ground-level & what has been the prevailing sentiment echoed from key clients. This rebound from what I am seeing is a result of purchasers getting comfortable around cost of debt and vendors coming to terms with new pricing levels. Clients are certainly becoming more discerning with their acquisitions. On the ground I see that time for presenting opportunistic offers on ‘off-market’ opportunities will decrease and it will come back to old school brokerage, relationships, and those agents with a grounding in this practice will continue to do well. With regard to public infrastructure, take us through some of the major projects that will transform your State & the impact you anticipate these projects will have in terms of driving new investment & development. SA has benefitted recently from several infrastructure projects that have improved transport corridors such as the Torrens to Darlington Project and the completion of the Northern Connector. This has improved access to and opened up SA’s outer northern industrial precincts as well as improving trucking routes. We have seen significant price uplift in industrial land values in this region. There are also several projects touted across energy, healthcare and airport infrastructure which will improve the overall investment horizon.
DAVID LUDLOW
124 – August / September 2024
Powered by FlippingBook