Boom sector

However, many investors, particularly the more seasoned and experienced ones, play in the commercial market. This is not surprising when you look at the numbers.

According to the Property Council, total returns were 14.89 per cent in the year ending September 30 and 10.73 per cent in the previous year.

Like many property markets, commercial is made up of a variety of sectors, such as CBD and office, industrial, retail, shopping centres and bulk retail.

An interesting characteristic of commercial property investment is that it tends to generate strong income flows. According to the September statistics, income returns for the sectors ranged from a low of 8.51 per cent for shopping centres to a high of 10.7 per cent for Wellington CBD. Capital returns ranged from 3.10 per cent for office buildings outside of Auckland's CBD to 9.64 per cent for shopping centres.

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