Australian independent online commercial property site Commercial Property Guide has acted on its new research which shows the presence of good cafes and high speed internet is as important as price when it comes to buying or renting commercial property.
The site says the outcome of its study into how businesses go about finding new commercial property shows businesses have a number of requirements that could not be currently answered online outside the more predictable criteria such as size and price.
“The research shows that just as important as the commercial space itself, was the property’s neighbourhood,” says Commercial Propery Guide CEO Simon Rose.
“Without any tools available to them online to get a sense of the neighbourhood, many property seekers report they were forced to drive around the prospective location to get a feel for the area.”
Other essential criteria businesses cite as critical to their property decision include availability of parking, nearby coffee shops and cafes, high speed internet connectivity and a guide to the average rent and sale prices for the suburb.
In response to this, Commercial Property Guide has now added the following search options to its online commercial property portal:
- Nearby parking (commercial and private)
- Coffee shops close by
- National Broadband Network (NBN) availability status
- A Price Guide for average rent and sale prices for the suburb
To help achieve these offerings, the company says it has partnered with a series of service providers whose businesses are to maintain of the quality and availability of this information.
Three well-respected organisations now feed information to Commercial Property Guide specific to each listed property.
Parkhound will contribute commercial off-street parking as well as AirBnB style private parking spaces, while Zomato, which incorporates the previous Urban Spoon, will offer for coffee locations and NBN Co will deliver NBN availability status.
In addition, the price guides for each suburb are automatically calculated from the real estate agent supplied pricing information. Three broad categories are calculated: Retail, Office and Industrial.
“By making a handful of key pieces of information accessible online, commercial property seekers no longer need to engage in the ‘drive-by’ to make property selection decisions,” Rose says.
“Some might argue that high speed internet is more important than coffee, while for others it might be extra parking for visitors that is a top priority.
“All can now be evaluated efficiently online from within the one commercial property listing page.”
Commercial Property Guide was established by Simon Rose and his father, Stephen, who originally acquired it as a CRM system.
They rebuilt it and marketed it to the Victorian commercial real estate industry. With a significant amount of listings acquired through their work with CRM agents, the Roses identified a gap in the market.
“Our independence gives us the freedom to focus on capturing the best commercial properties without looking over our shoulder worrying what our competitors are doing,” says Simon, who is also CEO of Rose Technology, a group of companies delivering digital communications solutions.
“It also means that the properties we list and the advice we provide is 100% independent of any outside commercial interest.”
