Top malls back with Chadstone on top as city shops jump

Premium malls are performing strongly as shoppers defy the cost-of-living crunch and pour into big centres for entertainment and new services.

Although interest rate relief is likely deferred until later this year, top centres are pulling in luxury shoppers, prompting demand for space from local and international brands.

The annual Big Guns report by industry publication Shopping Centre News showed the best centres had performed strongly last year, even amid broader valuation reset across shopping centres.

Premium malls are performing strongly as shoppers defy the cost-of-living crunch and pour into big centres for entertainment and new services. Picture: Supplied

The survey of malls with a gross lettable area of more than 50,000sq m – the major regional shopping centres with department stores, supermarkets, and the full range of speciality shops – showed more than 90 per cent of them had healthy increases in turnover in the previous year.

On the basis of moving annual turnover, Vicinity and John Gandel’s Chadstone centre in Melbourne once again topped the rankings with a massive $2.67bn, Scentre Group’s Westfield Chermside in Brisbane recorded a 6.3 per cent increase, placing it second with an MAT of $1.3bn. Last year three more centres joined the $1bn-plus club – Westfield Parramatta, Westfield Doncaster and QIC’s Robina Town Centre. There are now 12 centres in Australia with an MAT in excess of $1bn.

Michael Lloyd, SCN’s publisher, predicted that, by 2028, a centre would need to have an annual turnover of $1bn to make it into the country’s top 20.

But most analysts and retailers look to the turnover per square metre of a centre as a better indication of its performance, and city malls jumped as international students and office workers returned. GPT’s Melbourne Central topped the rankings recording $17,096 per sqm, with Broadway Sydney, owned by Mirvac and Perron Group, a close second at $16,449.

The SCN rankings go even further by tabling the turnover per square metre of the specialty shops – those retailers occupying an area less than 400sq m.

The standout here was Chadstone with a staggering $26,859 per sqm – up 27 per cent on the previous year. A speciality shop of about 100 sqm in Chadstone trading at the average level would have annual turnover of about $2.68m.