Perth has recorded its lowest office occupancy level since July 2020, falling way behind other capital cities that are bouncing back.
Data from the Property Council of Australia office occupancy survey shows Perth has gone backwards with occupancy levels at 55 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
Property Council WA executive director Sandra Brewer said the results were a major blow to businesses that had expected the border reopening to be free of restrictions.
“For two years, businesses across the state have managed staff shortages, supply constraints, a total pause on tourism, rolling restrictions, vaccination requirements and mask mandates under an assurance that compliance would mean a quick transition to living with Covid-19,” Ms Brewer said.
“Instead of benefiting from learnings on the east, we are now experiencing a replication of the economic damage we sought to avoid.”
Ms Brewer said despite the government encouraging people to work in the office, people remained deterred by other policy restrictions.
A Property Council WA poll showed among those surveyed more than 61 per cent of workers chose to work from home because of mask mandates.
Only 10 per cent of workers were working from home due to fear of Covid-19 transmission.
Ms xjmtzywBrewer said the data showed WA was effectively under a lockdown by policy.
WA’s hard border was dismantled last Thursday and already thousands of people have flocked to the state.
Premier Mark McGowan warned last week that WA was facing a tough month as he introduced a raft of restrictions to curb the spread of Omicron, including home gatherings limited to 10 people
“These level 2 measures will only be in place for a short time – hopefully around four weeks – and they will be reviewed before the end of the month,” he told reporters at the time.
A further 2365 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in WA on Monday as well as one death, bringing the total number of active cases to 13,486.
Tuesdays’s figures yet to be released.
