Australian Capital Territory

 

Population 310 000
Land Area 2400 sq km

Gross Production

Mining 95.5%
Manufacturing 2.4%
Agriculture 2.1%
Major Cities Population
Canberra 313 000
   
   
   
   

The Australian Capital Territory is centred around Canberra and is Australia's administrative capital city.

The ACT property market is highly controlled by the Territory government planning bodies. All land is leasehold and the government regulates land release, sub-division and infrastructure development. As a result, the Canberra property market did not suffer from the over-building of commercial space seen elsewhere in the late 1980s and hence did not suffer from the increasing vacancy rates. On the other hand, the election of the Liberal Government under John Howard saw the Canberra office market suffer under government cost cutting and decentralisation which resulted in significant falls in property values.

Commercial office space totals over 1.5 million square metres.  Investment yields for Canberra commercial buildings are weak at 11% and can be purchased for around A$2000 per square metre of building area. Rents are around A$250 per square metre per annum or less.

Industrial development in the Australian Capital Territory is a "cleaner" nature but also includes traditional warehousing functions. Industrial space rents for around A$70/sqm and sells for around A$700/sqm. Industrial investment yields are 11%.

There are thirteen Retail centres in the ACT, with the average area for a centre over 19,000 square metres.

The hotel market in the ACT is probably concentrates on business and government visitors and on a limited number of domestic tourists.

The Residential market in Canberra is strong relative to population size because of the controlled nature of land release and the affluent demographics of the city but has been stagnant for a number of years. The median house price is A$160,000.


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