Melbourne CBD office occupancy rate lowest in nation, CBD towers half empty on Mondays, Fridays

Melbourne’s CBD offices have the lowest occupancy rate in the nation and stand half empty on Mondays and Fridays more than two-and-a-half years after the city’s last lockdown ended.

Melbourne workers remain the most reluctant in the nation to return to the office with CBD towers still standing half empty on Mondays and Fridays.

Melbourne’s CBD office tower occupancy rate remains the lowest in the nation – standing at just 62 per cent of its pre-Covid level – more than two-and-a-half years after the city exited its sixth and final lockdown.

The number of workers turning up to a CBD office on a Friday also hasn’t budged in a year, the latest snapshot from commercial real estate agency CBRE shows.

Melbourne’s CBD offices stand half empty on Mondays and Fridays. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Melbourne’s average weekday occupancy rate is comfortably below the 77 per cent recorded in Sydney’s CBD or the 93 per cent and 88 per cent posted in Perth and Adelaide, respectively.

Brisbane recorded an average office occupancy rate of 83 per cent of its pre-Covid level.

Melbourne workers continue to shun the office on Friday with the occupancy rate standing at just 43 per cent of its pre-Covid level, pretty much unchanged from a year ago.

Monday’s occupancy rate stands at 53 per cent, up from 45 per cent a year ago.

Workers are most likely to attend the office on Tuesday when the rate hits a high of 75 per cent.

The state government will sell off some of its CBD office space. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

CBRE office and capital markets research head Tom Broderick said while Melbourne’s average occupancy rate had risen over the past year – up 5 percentage points – it remained the weakest in the nation.

“Melbourne and Canberra remain the markets with the lowest attendance rates,” he said.

“Both of these markets have improved over the last 12 months, yet started from behind the pack when Australia started to open up after the pandemic.

“Interestingly for Melbourne, the discrepancy between peak day (Tuesday) and lowest attendance day (Friday) is the biggest of any market in Australia.”

The lag in Melbourne comes despite major employers such as Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank stepping up their efforts to have workers attend their headquarters over the past year.

The state government, however, is moving to sell off some of its office space.

The development, revealed in this week’s state budget, has been slammed by the Property Council of Australia.

“This reduction in office space and community will have a negative impact both on the CBD but also the delivery on much needed spaces,” Victorian executive director Cath Evans said.