FOR THOSE looking for a new investment or business opportunity, five diverse commercial properties located right in the heart of Leongatha have come up for sale but is it a good time to do business?
There are retail, industry and office spaces, in prime locations, with street parking and walk-through traffic. A couple are vacant spaces while others have existing businesses in place, with the potential for long leases.
David Trotman sales consultant for Ray White in Leongatha said there has been some interest in the commercial property he’s selling and others they have listed.
“There have been a few through, and one who seems to have a bit of interest in it.”
While small businesses are the backbone of our local economy, in the current economic climate with costs on business being higher than ever, one wonders if it is a sensible time to enter the market or extend an existing business.
In a recent survey, Victoria was found to be the worst place to do business in Australia with a low ranking for its property taxes and charges, payroll taxes, and business licencing requirements.
However, in 2023-24, new business owners weren’t deterred and 73,125 businesses started in Australia, with 18,641 of these opening in Victoria.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there are about 7560 small businesses across Gippsland, and small businesses in regional Victoria make up about 31 per cent of the small business pie.
This year the Victorian Chamber of Commerce advocacy was successful in obtaining a number of successes for small businesses in the most recent state budget.
These included no new or increased taxes to be applied to Victorian businesses, insurance duty to be abolished gradually over a 10-year period, stamp duty for commercial and industrial properties to be abolished over the next four years, and the payroll tax-free threshold to be lifted from $900,000 to $1 million from July 1, 2025.
In a recently released report by the ABS, company gross profits (CGP) were shown to be variable across 13 industries, but wages and salaries rose across the five below-named industries by between 0.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent.
For the last September quarter and with seasonal adjustment, the industries that saw profit rises were retail at 1.4 per cent, and financial and insurance services at 3.8 per cent.
Those that saw profits fall were accommodation and food services industries at 5.2 per cent, transport, postal and warehousing at 2.8 per cent and rental, hiring and real estate services profits were down by 2.2 per cent.
However, in a relatively positive outlook, year-on-year rises in business turnover were seen in 10 of the 13 industries as published by the ABS.
The largest of these was in electricity, gas, water and waste services (19.3 per cent), construction (eight per cent), and transport, postal and warehousing (6.4 per cent).
Those that saw business turnover fall across the year were mining (-11.9 per cent), retail trade (-2.3 per cent) and wholesale trade (-1.9 per cent).
These figures and recent changes implemented for businesses highlight that there may be challenges and there may be growth across industries, in what is an ever-evolving economic landscape.
