A client came to me with a condition. “I’m happy to work with you,” he said, “but only if you find me an off market property.”
When I asked why, his answer was he could find listed properties himself.
What he wanted was access to something other buyers couldn’t get.
Seems reasonable but it’s built on a slightly wrong assumption about where the real advantage is.
Why Off Market Properties Have a Reputation
Commercial property moves differently to residential. There are far fewer transactions, a much smaller buyer pool, and no requirement for vendors to run a public campaign to achieve a good outcome. Many commercial sales happen through relationships, through conversations with the right people to who know what’s coming before it’s listed anywhere.
In the current Victorian market, the conditions have accelerated this. Land tax increases have changed the calculus for owners of vacant commercial properties. A generation of investors who bought decades ago, paid off their assets and relied on tenants to cover most of their outgoings, are now carrying holding costs they didn’t plan for. Many are selling. And they’re doing it quietly.
The other driver is generational. A significant number of commercial properties in Melbourne are held by boomers who have no interest in the complexity of transferring assets to family. The disputes, the tax implications, the conversations they don’t want to have. They sell and distribute the cash.
Around 70 percent of what Impacta Commercial Advocates secures for clients is off market or pre market. Not because off market is inherently superior, but because that’s where a meaningful proportion of the right properties are.
The Part Most People Get Wrong
The appeal of off market is usually framed as access. The reality is that access alone doesn’t protect you. What protects you is information and knowing how to use it.
Understanding the vendor’s position before you open a negotiation is what changes the dynamic. Knowing why they’re selling, what timeline they’re working to, whether there are other interested parties, what the market genuinely says about the value of the asset. These are the things that determine whether a purchase is a good one, not whether it appeared on a listings platform.
An off market property with incomplete due diligence is not a deal. It’s a risk you took in private.
What Gives You the Actual Advantage
Whether a property is on market, pre market, or off market, the fundamentals are the same. You need to understand the vendor’s position. You need an honest assessment of what the property is worth in the current market, informed by comparable sales, lease data, and the specific conditions of the asset. You need thorough due diligence so there are no surprises after settlement. And you need the patience to hold when the terms aren’t right and the decisiveness to move when they are.
At Impacta Commercial Advocates, the way we approach property value assessment is baked into how we prepare clients for negotiation. It’s not a separate product. It’s the work we do to make sure our clients walk into every conversation knowing exactly where they stand.
That preparation is adapted across the board for on market properties as well. The advantage isn’t the channel. It’s the positioning.
So Is Off Market Worth It?
Yes, as much as the right on market property is worth it. The question worth asking before you commit to a search strategy is this: do you want a specific type of property listing, or do you want the best possible outcome for your business and your investment over the next decade?
If it’s the latter, the channel becomes much less important than the process.
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