NAB’s quarterly commercial property survey continued to deteriorate in the September quarter, not that you’d know it from A-REIT prices:
NAB Commercial Property Index hits new low of -19 points in Q3’12 as domestic economy passes through a soft patch with business conditions weaker and forward indicators concerning. Retail participants least optimistic, but expectations soften most in office and CBD Hotel markets. WA strongest market nationally. Victoria weakest with less property professionals expecting positive capital or income returns in office and retail markets. Consumer confidence seen as the main challenge for property firms in the next year.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
