Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip - Volume 2: Melbourne’s iconic retail strips have continued to thrive and reinforce their position as the heartbeat of their local communities, with new research from Fitzroys showing they appear to have moved through the worst of the retail industry upheaval.
Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip - Volume 2 report shows vacancies have tightened across most of Melbourne’s key retail strips over the 12 months to June, as they evolve and adapt to a changing retail environment, and Melbourne’s nation-leading population growth brings medium and high-density residential developments to their immediate catchments.
Fitzroys Director, David Bourke, said strip centres would always provide an environment that people want to shop and find community in.
“Strip centres will continue to be an important presence in our communities, hosting a strong quality and mix of operators in a focal point for a neighbourhood or catchment.”
He said strip centres have been adjusting and re-mixing to take into account the introduction of Amazon and evolutions in online retailing over the last few years.
“Much of the change throughout the strips has already taken place in anticipation of Amazon’s introduction, and its impact on the strips will be more tempered than the build-up suggested.”
According to Fitzroys research, evergreen Church Street, Brighton was one of the strongest performers from June 2017 to June 2018, with its vacancy rate tightening from 2.7% to 1.3%, while Ivanhoe’s Upper Heidelberg Road was steady at a tight 0.8%.
High Street, Armadale vacancies were crunched from 7.9% to 4.1%; and Burke Road, Camberwell from 6.0% to 2.4%.
Across the inner-north, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy came in from 8.0% to 3.8%; Sydney Road, between Victoria Street and Brunswick Road, was halved to 3.0% and between Moreland Road and Victoria Street firmed from 10.2% to 6.5%.
Bourke said strip centres have seen a growing proportion of shops being used for service uses, with the number of new cafés, bars and restaurants well-documented.
“The proliferation of delivery services such as Uber Eats, Menulog and Deliveroo represents a growing proportion of food and beverage turnover, and some operators are finding a secondary location that is sufficient for their needs as there is less reliance on passing trade,” he said.
“In addition to this there are a huge number of personal care businesses such as hairdressers, beauticians, skin care clinics, masseurs and gyms opening in the strips, into locations they previously wouldn’t have considered.”
Walk the Strip – Volume 2 will be available from next week.
Disclosure: The weekly Fitzroys Property Wrap is for information only on transactions in the Melbourne property market. Fitzroys provides this information as a public service. We are not purporting that all sales and leases within this report were transacted by Fitzroys.