RWC symposium series sets network up for success

RWC has hosted a series of symposiums up the east coast this month, with more than 200 business owners, sales people, property managers and admins joining for a day of learning and development.

The first symposium was held in Melbourne, followed by Sydney, with the Brisbane symposium wrapping up the series today.

RWC Property Management BDE Leteicha Wilson was the MC for the events, and welcomed members to the symposium which was sponsored by RealCommercial.

“Today provides the opportunity to get back in the room together and get motivated for the year ahead,” she said.

Ray White Group managing director Dan White and RWC general manager James Linacre (pictured below) spoke about the state of the network and RWC’s goals for the year.

Mr Linacre said 110 new faces had joined the RWC network this financial year.

“At a time when a lot of our competitors are shedding numbers, we continue to grow,” Mr Linacre said.

Mr White said it was exciting to see the group continue to expand.

“There’s a lot of new faces who are allowing the group to keep developing and growing,” he said.

“All the faces in the room today, both new and old, have contributed to where we are today.”

Despite the challenges being experienced in the commercial property market, at the Queensland symposium today Mr White said RWC remained in a similar position to previous years, both in transaction value and volume, with transaction volumes down by just 1.4 per cent.

“The commercial market is volatile and it's certainly been a more challenging time, but it's good we have grown as a group and we have written similar volumes despute a more uncertain market,” Mr White said.

“Queensland has been the standout market since covid, the vibrancy of south east Queensland has been amazing.

“There have been some challenges with construction, but overall interest and confidence has been amazing.

“I haven't seen it in my career with one area outstripping the rest of the country for such a long period.”

Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee and head of research Vanessa Rader provide an economic update and spoke about the state of the commercial property market.

Ms Conisbee (pictured above) said there were a lot of positive signs for the commercial property market.

“We’re seeing international migration starting up again, but we’ve got a lot of confidence and a lot of wealth which is all improving the economic market,” she said.

“The market is very variable at the moment in a way we haven't seen before.

“Last year we had that November rate rise which wasn't a surprise but it did put a dampener on activity and on confidence.

“But it is looking like we’ll have some rate cuts this year. Inflation is sitting at 4.1 per cent, and there is potential for a cut in early May and one in the second half of the year.

“If that occurs it will lead to far more transactions taking place.”

Ms Conisbee said there had been a big decline in transaction volumes nationally.

“Transaction volumes as a whole are way down compared to what we are seeing as a group,” she said.

“The people who are buying in the market are the privates, and the groups who are really selling are REITs.”

Ms Rader (pictured above) said the assets which RWC specialised in were still trading well.

“What we’re really good at is those owner occupier assets in the sub-$5 million range, and those assets are still transacting quite well,” Ms Rader said.

“That has helped RWC keep their transaction volumes quite high.”

She said industrial was performing particularly well in the owner occupier space as people tried to shelter from increased rents. While the office market has seen some challenges recently, Ms Rader said Queensland’s office market was performing the best compared to other markets, with the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast markets seeing low vacancy rates. She said Brisbane CBD market returns were also performing above the national average. Ms Rader said she believed the retail space would start to stabilise going forward.

“Transaction activity is definitely going to pick up this year,” she said.

“We’re going to see a lot of funds selling and a lot of privates swooping in to pick them up.

“People are learning to be a bit more realistic in terms of prices and so we’re seeing a lot of assets that might not have sold last year start to sell.”

Lisa Smith from Real Commercial, who sponsored the events, spoke about how consumers use realcommercial.com.au and how businesses can get the most out of their services. She spoke about how consumers use the website on their commercial real estate journey, with buyers and potential tenants being the largest consumer group.