Low vacancy rates as Mac Park prepares for post-pandemic work

As offices prepare to reopen post-lockdown, vacancy rates in Macquarie Park are bucking the trend.

A new report from the Property Council of Australia shows Macquarie Park’s tightly held commercial market enjoys one of the lowest non-CBD vacancy rates in the country - less than 10% - matched only by East Melbourne, in Victoria.

Adrian Harrington, the head of capital and product development at Charter Hall, told a Property Council seminar that rumours of the death of the office were greatly exaggerated:

“We’ve had the recession of 1991-92, the tech boom and bust of 2001-02 and the global financial crisis of 2008 and none of those killed the office market either. That puts it into perspective and shows how resilient it is. The office market is changing and evolving, but it is still here, and it will continue to evolve as it comes out of COVID.”

Leading local employers are taking a long term view on Macquarie Park, too. In 2019 telco Optus signed a 12-year lease on their Macquarie Park campus, while health and pharma giant Johnson & Johnson committed to build their new Australian headquarters in the Park one year later.

In August 2021 internet tech founders Vicky and David Teoh were reported to have spent $106.5 million to secure a five level office building on Waterloo Road as new headquarters for TPG, the internet company they started in 1992.

With continued hybrid work on the cards, the way office space is used is expected to evolve from traditional desk-only models to more collaborative and cooperative space. New research from Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District shows local employees want to use their office primarily to spend time and work with their colleagues.

General Manager Mark Ames believes while working from home offers flexibility many employees enjoy, the option to come back to the office post-lockdown will be popular.

“After more than 100 days of lockdown in Greater Sydney, people will be looking forward to connecting with their colleagues again in a safe environment.”

“We’ve been working with Connect MPID members to help them define the purpose of their office and how it is used, starting with their culture and values first. We have tools, data and insights to help Mac Park prepare for what’s next.”

Download the Connect MPID Report – Finding the path forward 2021 – for more about the Macquarie Park journey.