Vacancies in Canberra's office spaces remained steady despite demand slipping into negative territory in the last six months, a new property snapshot shows.
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The national capital's vacancy rates remained stable at 11 per cent for all stock as a drop in supply offset lowering demand.
Canberra's vacancy rate was below its 10-year average and behind only results for Sydney and Melbourne's CBDs.
A new report from the Property Council of Australia, released on Thursday, shows vacancy rates diverging for the ACT's high- and lower-quality offices.
A-grade office stock became less available in Canberra, falling from 8.6 to 5 per cent in vacancy rates over 12 months.
Vacancies in Canberra's B-grade stock have risen slightly to 12.4 per cent since January, while C-grade stock vacancy rates also grew, reaching more than 20 per cent.
The Property Council's ACT executive director, Adina Cirson, said the commercial leasing sector remained confident the market would hold steady, despite demand dipping into the negative.
Rents would grow 4.8 per cent over 2019 for high-quality stock, and 1.9 per cent annually for the three years after on the back of tenant demand, the report predicted.
Canberra would remain an attractive counter-cyclical investment destination for domestic investors and would become more attractive for international capital.
"Broad-based white collar employment growth and leasing sector demand will continue to benefit the Canberra office market," it said.
Tenant demand for CBD office space grew only 0.1 per cent nationally over the last six months, the lowest growth in over four years, indicating a softening economy, the council's national chief executive Ken Morrison said.