Offices unscathed, back to business soon

"Luckily I don't think there would be many office tenants in the Brisbane CBD whose businesses have been ruined, but there will be retail tenants and restaurants whose businesses have been ruined," said Jones Lang LaSalle Australian chief executive Stephen Conry. "If businesses haven't been ruined then tenant confidence in the buildings they occupy won't be overly harmed. They will come back to work next week and resume their business."

Mr Conry said that commercial tenant confidence would return quickly, noting the precedent of the 1974 Queensland flood and describing quality office assets as a strategic long-term investment.

But the executive director of the Queensland division of the Property Council of Australia, Kathy Mac Dermott, said it was too early to know the full impact of the floods on Brisbane's commercial property.

"An immediate focus has been addressing water-affected basement carparks, where critical building services are also located," she said.

"For building owners and occupants in Brisbane there was time to prepare and protect employers and work places, and this should help speed up the recovery process."

Ms Mac Dermott said there could be some short-term relocations of tenants from riverside and fringe city suburbs such as West End and Milton to the Brisbane CBD on interim agreements.

Diversified property group GPT said its two major CBD properties Riverside and One One One Eagle Street were closed until further notice. "Floodwaters are isolated to the basements of both buildings. Energy to most of the CBD has been cut and both Riverside and One One One Eagle Street will remain evacuated until Monday," said GPT Group chief executive Michael Cameron.