Inside Commercial Property

The RBA has raised interest rates again. For property investors, that isn't a reason to stop: it's a reason to secure your cash flow, which is what commercial property is built for. You can't control interest rates, but you can control what your property earns and how long you can afford to hold it. And when rates rise, many buyers step back, leaving more room to negotiate and buy well.

Tom Panos, Scott O'Neill and David Hamilton discuss what the rate rise means for property investors, bringing three different views of the market to the table:
Tom Panos: Auctioneer, media commentator and coach to real estate salespeople, who sees the market at auctions every weekend
Scott O'Neill: Founder and CEO of Rethink Group, co-founder of Rethink Investing, and a long-term commercial property investor
David Hamilton: Property developer and co-host of Inside Commercial Property

In this episode, they explain:
Rent Over Rates: Why Scott watches the rent coming in, not the Reserve Bank, and why losing a tenant can matter more than a rate rise.
The Tenants Who Keep Paying: Which businesses struggle to pay rent when rates rise, which barely notice, and how to tell the difference before you buy.
Property as a Subscription: Why a good commercial lease works like a subscription, with rent that rises a little every year.
Where the Big Money Is Going: Who's still buying right now, what they're buying, and why they aren't buying on emotion.
Buy Well, Not at the Bottom: Why waiting for the bottom of the market so often backfires, and what Tom means by "don't waste a crisis".
The Cash Buffer: Who shouldn't buy right now, and how much cash to keep aside so you're never forced to sell.

Book a Consultation: https://rethinkgroup.com.au/icp-spotify

Explore commercial property with Rethink Investing:
Australia: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/

Follow Tom Panos: https://www.instagram.com/tom_panos/
Follow Scott O'Neill: https://www.instagram.com/scott_oneill_/
Follow Rethink Investing: https://www.instagram.com/rethinkinvesting/

Chapters:
(00:00) Trailer
(01:35) Commercial Property: Why Investors Want Income
(04:10) The Budget, Tax and First Home Buyers
(08:02) Why Tenants Matter More Than the RBA
(12:05) RBA Rate Rise: Who It Really Hurts
(20:19) Australian Property Market: What Auctions Show
(23:22) Is Australia Heading for a Recession?
(27:22) Buy Well, Don't Wait for the Bottom
(33:34) Why Cash Flow Matters More Than Rates
(37:35) How Much Cash Buffer Do You Need?
(40:42) Motivated Sellers: Where the Deals Are Now
(49:00) Surviving a Downturn: Market Share and AI
(57:16) Closing Advice: Don't Waste a Crisis

Higher interest rates are supposed to push commercial property values down. In most sectors, they haven't. This market update maps where the commercial property market actually stands: which asset classes and states are strengthening, which are softening, and where the opportunity sits for Australian investors at home and in New Zealand.

Scott O'Neill and co-host David Hamilton work through it sector by sector. Industrial is settling into a steadier rhythm, retail has staged a genuine comeback, and office has split into two very different markets. The national numbers tell one story. The individual markets tell several.

Scott shares what he is buying, what he is avoiding, and the due diligence issues derailing deals. David brings the developer's view of why so little is being built, and what that means for anyone who already owns.

In this episode:
How to tell a prime office opportunity from a secondary building that only looks like value
Where Scott is most active across the states, and why
What New Zealand offers an Australian investor in its own right
What happens to existing owners when developers pull back, and why leasing up is taking longer
Why a lower yield isn't always the safer buy, and where Scott draws the line

Book a Consultation: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/lets-talk
Explore commercial property with Rethink Investing:Australia: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/
Follow Scott O'Neill: https://www.instagram.com/scott_oneill_/
Follow Rethink Investing: https://www.instagram.com/rethinkinvesting/

(00:00) Trailer
(01:08) Welcome and the Commercial Property Market Update
(04:39) Industrial Property: Yields, Growth and Rents
(08:42) Retail Property: The Comeback Story
(10:43) Neighbourhood Centres and Why New Supply Has Stalled
(12:48) Office Property: Prime vs Secondary, and Who It Suits
(17:31) Medical and Childcare Property: Yields and Leases
(22:10) State by State: New South Wales
(24:59) Victoria: Lower Prices and Better Yields
(27:37) Queensland: Brisbane, Industrial and the Olympics
(31:51) Western Australia: Perth After a Strong Run
(33:40) Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin: The Smaller Markets
(38:24) New Zealand: The Opportunity for Australian Investors
(39:59) Inflation, Rents and Real Capital Growth
(41:06) New Zealand: Financing and Market Drivers
(44:26) Developer Collapses and Private Credit
(48:05) Will Developer Failures Reach Commercial Owners?
(51:02) What Scott Is Buying and Avoiding
(53:08) Lower Yields and Where the Real Risk Sits
(56:49) Why Deals Are Falling Over at Due Diligence
(58:49) Listener Questions
(1:10:04) Final Thoughts and the Rate Decisions Ahead

Most investors think growing a commercial property portfolio means buying the next property. It usually doesn't. The highest-return capital is often already sitting in the asset you own, in the space that isn't earning, and unlocking it is simpler and cheaper than buying again.

Scott O'Neill and co-host David Hamilton break down the value-add strategies that turn an underperforming commercial property into a stronger one, without a new loan or a new purchase. Because commercial property is valued on its income, a small lift in what an asset earns becomes a large lift in what it's worth. A single lease renegotiation, a strip of idle space, a rezoning nobody noticed, and the valuation moves.

Scott works through the four levers where this plays out, from the lease itself to income from idle space and energy. David brings the developer's eye to the value hiding in zoning, approvals and amalgamation, the kind created through paperwork, not construction.

In this episode:
How a small lift in income turns into a large lift in valuation, and why the lease is the most powerful lever most owners overlook
Where value hides in idle space, from rooftops to unused land, and who actually does the work
The development value that comes from permissions, not building, and roughly what it costs versus what it adds
How to audit your own property for the levers hiding in it
When a value-add stops being a bonus and becomes a costly distraction

Book a Consultation: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/lets-talk

Explore commercial property with Rethink Investing:Australia: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/

Follow Scott O'Neill: https://www.instagram.com/scott_oneill_/Follow Rethink Investing: https://www.instagram.com/rethinkinvesting/

(00:00) Trailer
(01:03) Why Value-Adds, Why Now
(03:20) What a Value-Add Is, and the Four Levers
(06:45) Where Value-Adds Fit, and Why They're a Bonus
(08:33) The Rental Cap Trap That Blew Up a Deal
(11:13) Timing: Buying Short Leases for the Upside
(13:11) Solar: The 20% Cash-on-Cash Play
(16:34) How Solar Works, and How It Lifts Valuation
(20:40) Billboards: Income From Idle Space
(23:03) The Lease Itself: Adding Rentable Area
(24:42) When and How Hard to Push the Rent
(29:14) Why Market Reviews Make or Break a Lease
(34:19) The Development Lever: Dave Co-Teaches
(37:09) Rezoning and Amalgamation: The Real Upside
(43:57) Closing Comments

Scott O'Neill has spent fifteen years building commercial property portfolios through every kind of market. The recent federal budget has rattled Australian property investors, and the headlines have amplified it. Scott's response to the noise: for commercial property, almost none of it changes what actually matters. Here's what does.

In this episode, Scott is joined by new co-host David Hamilton, a developer and host of Everything Property podcast, to work through why a disciplined commercial investor can read the same headlines as everyone else and reach a completely different conclusion.

Commercial sits largely outside the proposed changes, but the more useful point is why that is, and why it was always going to be. A portfolio built on strong yields, cash-flow-positive assets, and quality tenants doesn't depend on the settings that were just shaken. Scott and Dave move quickly past the policy details and into the ground truth: where yields are right now, which asset classes are holding, and what separates an investor who repositions with a plan from one who reacts to a headline.

In this episode:
- Why commercial property sits largely outside the proposed budget changes and why that's structural, not luck
- Where commercial property yields are strongest right now: retail, large format, shopping centres, warehouses
- The difference between an investor who repositions with a plan and one who reacts to a headline
- What a developer's eye picks up that a commercial investor can miss- How to read a genuine asset from one that only looks good on paper

Book a Consultation: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/lets-talkExplore commercial property with Rethink Investing:- Australia: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/

Follow Scott O'Neill: https://www.instagram.com/scott_oneill_/Follow Rethink Investing: https://www.instagram.com/rethinkinvesting/

(00:00) Trailer
(00:59) Welcome and Introducing New Co-Host
(02:58) A Developer's Perspective on Commercial Property
(04:14) Does the Budget Actually Change Commercial Property?
(10:12) Negative Gearing vs Capital Gains, Explained
(16:01) Should First-Time Investors Buy Now or Wait?
(19:39) Why Fundamentals Beat the Tax Breaks
(23:06) What Commercial Investors Are Really Doing Now
(26:05) The Investors Who Panic vs The Ones Who Buy
(34:32) Where Commercial Yields Are Strongest Right Now
(38:07) Warehouses and Industrial: The Yield Play
(42:08) The Strategy That Hasn't Changed Since 2010
(45:25) Why Everyone Is Suddenly Talking Commercial
(49:02) Inside The Development Industry
(54:16) The Long View: Fundamentals Outlast

Most sophisticated investors rule hotels and motels out before they understand them, and in doing so they overlook one of the most compelling yields in commercial property today. Hotels and motels are a new asset class in the Australian and New Zealand markets, and one that most investors have never been taught to understand. In this episode of Inside Commercial Property, Scott O'Neill is joined by Selin Ince, Rethink Group's hotels and motels acquisition specialist, to unpack the asset class: the investment structure of hotels and motels, why the misconceptions persist, and why the barrier to entry is far more achievable for the experienced private investor than most assume.

The hesitation almost always comes from one assumption: that the whole category means running a hospitality business. It doesn't. A leased hotel is a commercial lease with a strong tenant covenant, structurally no different from the leased industrial or retail these investors already own. The motel is a separate proposition, a smaller-ticket operating business with real value-add upside for the hands-on buyer. Selin sets out both with precision: the structure, the numbers, the finance, and the entry points that put this within reach of private capital, not institutions alone.

In this episode:
- Leased hotels versus motels: one is a passive lease, the other an operating business
- What ownership of a leased hotel really involves, and what it doesn't
- How leased hotel and motel yields compare with industrial and retail
- Where the private-buyer entry points sit, from motels through to passive boutique hotels
- How the finance stacks up, and the first move for an investor ready to take the asset class seriously

Book a Consultation: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/lets-talk

Explore commercial property with Rethink Investing:
- Australia: https://www.rethinkinvesting.com.au/

Follow Scott O'Neill: https://www.instagram.com/scott_oneill_/
Follow Rethink Investing: https://www.instagram.com/rethinkinvesting/

(00:00) Trailer
(01:23) Why Commercial Property Leads Are Rising Now
(02:57) Introducing Hotels and Motels as an Asset Class
(04:16) What Makes a Hotels and Motels Specialist
(04:54) Why Off-Market Access Matters in Hotels
(06:26) Common Misconceptions About Hotel Investing
(07:13) Hotel and Motel Price Points Explained
(08:04) Leased Hotels vs Motels: The Key Difference
(10:47) Hotel and Motel Yields Compared to Industrial
(12:47) What You're Actually Buying With a Leased Hotel
(26:16) Where the Genuine Opportunity Now Sits
(31:36) Finance and Lending for Hotels and Motels
(38:20) Passive Hotel Entry Points for Investors
(41:31) The Sensible First Step Into the Asset Class