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.

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.

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.

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.

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