Shift in activity during the week

“Weekday enquiry has picked up, particularly from Tuesdays to Thursdays, while City of Melbourne data showed weekend visitation rates heading into summer were actually higher than pre-pandemic 20191 .” Foot traffic generally in January is up 20% on pre-pandemic levels 2 .”

“We’ve seen an increase in weekend

1 https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/incredible-u-turn-as-cbd-shifts-from-work-to-play-20221120-p5bzou.html

2 https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/australian-open-organisers-hail-phenomenal-bounceback-20230113-p5ccb2 visitation with numbers predominantly centralised around hospitality venues and event spaces.

“Working from-home-arrangements are here to stay, and as we’ve seen workers figure out gradually how they want to split their week between home and the workplace it has become apparent that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the busiest for daytime trade, while bars and restaurants continue to receive a boost on these nights.

Activity during Tuesday to Thursday continues to be stable; heading into summer, Melbourne’s average office occupancy lifted from 45% to 57% in November, according to the Property Council of Australia, driving trade both through the day and at night. Mondays are slowly starting to catch up and Fridays continue to be a designated work-from-home day across the board for CBD tenants, Lockwood said.

“Thursday has become the new Friday. These new patterns of movement have translated to increased bookings and activity amongst restaurants and bars in Thursday nights in particular as workers begin to wind-down from their week in the office. We’re then still seeing the typical influx of visitors on Friday nights and across