Happy New Year

2023 is shaping to be an interesting year for industrial property, with a potential technical recession looming, and predictions of an increasing OCR leading to even higher interest rates.

But against that background we still have extremely low vacancy rates, increasing rental rates, and strong demand from investors for quality properties. One of the challenges in front of us all is that all the banks are now reluctant lenders with tardy processes, which slows the transaction process considerably.

Industrial markets have always been cyclical, and we are now entering a new phase. It's similar to phases we have seen before  (87 Crash, Asian Financial Crisis, Dot-Com Crash, GFC etc) but undoubtedly will be different.

The key to survival /success is going to be adaptation. Already in the residential market we are seeing a rush to exit by agents in some localities. The agents who are most likely to survive this coming year are those who realise that over-selling to obtain a listing, putting it on Trademe, and then sitting back and waiting, just won't cut it anymore. It's going to be those agents who understand the value of communication and honesty who are still in the business this time next year.

At Expedio we have a range of opportunities coming available over the next 6 months. A combination of final lease ends, new builds, acquisitions and tenants moving on will enable us to offer a selection of opportunities. It is inevitable that some of these opportunities will disappear as current tenants realise that the grass elsewhere is not greener, and buyers are prepared to commit before refurbishment completion. All of which leads us to urge agents to maintain communication!