Melbourne’s office market is set to grow by a staggering 9.8% over the next five years, whilst Sydney almost half that at 4.9%. Melbourne’s office market in on track to reach and surpass the size of Sydney’s over the next decade. Increased land space in Docklands and a rapidly growing population have seen Melbourne’s market develop much faster than Sydney’s over the last 15 years.
Streets like Flinders lane in Melbourne have seen huge surges in rent, forcing some businesses to move out of the CBD into the fringes. This in turn has caused residential premises on the fringes to convert to office space, pushing the residential market into the suburbs.
It’s also pushing retailers in the CBD into second and third floor spaces rather than the traditional street front.
The opposite is happening in Perth, where post resource boom, CBD rents have plummeted and business is flooding from the burbs back into the CBD where vacancy rates have surged.
Greening Corporate Melbourne and Sydney
Melbourne and Sydney have recently been awarded a green office award through the C40 Cities Awards for the their CitySwitch Green Office Program. The program improves energy and waste efficiency for businesses. Currently 801 tenancies covering over 3,439,304 sqm have committed to CitySwitch. CitySwitch has tools for companies to figure out the right recycling and waste management plan for their specific business circumstances. It’s the only program that fights climate change bilaterally through both state and local governments.
