Australian Malls Post AU$118.8 Billion in Turnover as Dining and CBDs Lead Recovery

Australian shopping centres generated AU$118.8 billion in turnover across 516 properties. Food retail, dining and central business district locations drove the post-disruption growth.

Trading across 14.6 million square metres of gross leasable area and 46,743 tenants stabilized between 2025 and 2026, according to the latest Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks. Spending patterns shifted across categories and geographies.

Dining and Jewellery Drive Tenant Gains

Food catering delivered the strongest momentum across all centre categories, rising 7.5 per cent year-on-year. Food retail sales gained 6.9 per cent over the same period.

Discretionary categories diverged. Jewellery sales jumped 11.6 per cent. Entertainment venues rose 8.8 per cent, and retail services advanced 6.2 per cent. Non-food mini-majors expanded sales by 7 per cent. That segment benefited from apparel brands like Uniqlo taking over floor space previously held by traditional department store anchors.

Central Precincts Outpace Outer Suburbs

Downtown centres recorded the strongest geographic performance, lifting retail sales by 7.1 per cent. Super-regional malls followed at 5.0 per cent.

Outer metropolitan centres trailed the national recovery, posting sales growth of 3.9 per cent despite recording the fastest residential population expansion. High mortgage rates and debt servicing costs curtailed spending in suburban family corridors.

Shifting Floorplates Across Asia-Pacific

Landlords across Asia-Pacific are cutting department store allocations. They favour high-turnover fast fashion and experiential dining instead. Australian figures confirm that food and beverage tenancies now anchor footfall better than general merchandise.

Risks remain concentrated in outer suburban assets. If mortgage stress persists, neighbourhood and suburban centres heavily reliant on mass apparel and homewares will face occupancy pressure unless they rebalance toward essential services and food concepts.

Stabilisation After Years of Pressure

The 2026 benchmark results follow multi-year trading disruptions marked by rapid interest rate hikes and inflation across the Australian consumer economy. Comparable mall performance over the 2025 to 2026 window points to normalising floor productivity across major retail hubs.

The shift towards experiences and in-centre consumption also shows the growing social role of shopping precincts and is helping centres remain resilient as e-commerce continues to expand

Operators now enter the next leasing review cycle with vacancy rates tightest in prime CBD strips and regional assets. Upcoming leasing negotiations will test tenant margins against rising operational costs.