Inner West Office

HillPDA was engaged to prepare an independent study concerning Sydney’s Inner West commercial office market. The main objective was to ascertain whether 1,200sqm of commercial office space, proposed for the first floor of a mixed use development at 120 Old Canterbury Road, Lewisham, was likely to be feasible given tenant preferences and market conditions.

In order to provide a robust assessment, HillPDA:

• Extensively researched office submarkets in Sydney’s Inner West to enable comparison of their prevailing performance;
• Identified general trends in commercial office development which could impact on demand for office uses in Lewisham; and
• Considered the attributes of the proposed development in Lewisham and noted its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The market study found that it was unlikely there would be sufficient market demand for the 1,200sqm of first floor commercial office suites located on the Subject Site. Based on HillPDA’s analysis and the dynamics of supply and demand, it was concluded in this particular case that should the development be built, only a handful of suites would be likely to attract tenants at market rent levels, leaving the remainder of the first floor vacant and eroding the viability of the whole development.

Marrickville Council considered HillPDA’s report and agreed to permit residential development on the first floor of the proposed development.

Sydney’s Inner West office market can be divided into three submarkets: large office precincts/business parks; established town centres and high streets; and fragmented out of centre sites.

Summary of services: Market Research, Economic Trends Analysis