STALLED DEVELOPMENTS MEAN MARKET PLAYS WAITING GAME
CBRE Cairns managing director Danny Betros says there is demand for CBD property but very few options for buyers.
“At the moment, you couldn’t buy a brand new unit even if you wanted to,” he said.
“Nova was going to take up a bit of that slack but it seems to have stalled a bit with COVID-19, which is completely understandable.
“I do still believe some of these projects will be successful.” Mr Betros said residential conversions of old vacant commercial spaces were possible in some cases, but the costs generally made such ventures unfeasible.
“A lot of buildings just don’t comply with what is required,” he said.
“They don’t have natural light or any ability to open a window or even develop boundaries.
“It just gets back to the individual site.
“Most of these conversion projects in the capital cities have been in major warehousing in fringe areas.
“They’re big, big structures that are able to provide balconies and cut-outs to get natural light and airflow through.
“I couldn’t identify any building in the city at the moment that you could convert to residential.”
For now, it remains a waiting game.
“We have a long way to go before we get back the numbers into the city, tourist-wise,” Mr Betros warned.
“We’re not going to see much change in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Office vacancies haven’t changed, they are still quite tight, but retail will change. “Unfortunately a lot of retailers and restaurants won’t make it. “Some will close and some will get replaced by others in the next 12 months.”