Elsie Adamo
INTEREST in commercial buildings is growing in Mount Gambier, according to city real estate agents.
There are fewer empty commercial buildings around Mount Gambier than two to three years ago, with investment strong in the region.
Herbert Commercial business manager Matt Kain, and senior leasing and sales consultant Shae Landon, say they have seen increased interest in both sales and lease listings.
“We only have one recent [lease] listing that has no applications,” Ms Landon said.
“That is a very good indication of the interest that we have got of new business in town, as well as existing business.”
It is welcome news to Mr Kain who said the commercial market has improved over the last two years.
“We have had a lot of vacancies prior to this period,” Mr Kain said.
“There is not another commercial property we have on the books at all, where we would have had ten to twelve 18 months to two years ago.
“The Mount Gambier main street [Commercial Street] has been transforming, and we are coming to the end of that.”
The increase in interest, Mr Kain said, has been caused by movement from cities to regional areas, and businesses that have needed to expand to larger premises.
“It does not matter who you are, supplies cannot be obtained in the old timeframe of ‘order today, get it this week’, so they are stockpiling and upgrading their storage capacity,” he said.
“From little businesses to big multinational companies, they are seeking larger industrial shed storage facilities, and there is a shortage of industrial land.”
The high leasing rate has also meant there are more people investing in the region.
“There has never been a lot of commercial property available to purchase, but there are more buyers than there are properties more so now,” Mr Kain said.
“The investment into regions is allowing an injection of funds where longstanding properties that have not had much money spent on them in a long time are being seen as a development opportunity.”
With the city’s growth, Ms Landon said business confidence has started to bounce back after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are seeing a lot of small businesses and start-up businesses to be more confident in the market to start exploring and investigating opportunities,” she said.
“We are also seeing interest from some of those larger retail brands and chains,” she said.
Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Hayley Neumann said she is not as convinced that there has been strong movement in business occupancy rates.
“There are still quite a few empty shop fronts,” she said.
“Whether you look at marketplace, central or down the main street, you can still see empty shops.”
Ms Neumann said there may be a limited amount of lease listings, but there are empty properties sitting due to absentee landlords.
“They [owners] do not live here and are happy for it to sit empty,” she said.
“They do not want to spend the money on it to get it up to scratch to be leased.”
Ms Landon and Mr Kain disagreed with the notion that properties fit to be leased were not being listed.
“There are often complexities that no one really knows what is happening within the ownership of that building,” Ms Landon said.
“They may visually be absentee, but you do not know what is going on inside,” Mr Kain said.
“As a general rule people do not want to have an asset there costing them money with no return, but there are circumstances that will create that scenario but not very often.”
