Strand Arcade in Sydney the most productive shopping arcade for sales in Australia

The well-known mall’s specialty sales per square metre are at $25,472.

“It’s no surprise as this centre straddles across Pitt Street and George Street who are battling it out for retail supremacy,” the SCN report noted.

The research reveals just now much more intense is the sales productivity in central-city malls compared with the largest suburban and urban fringe shopping centres.

By contrast, as reported in March,  the most productive mall among the country’s larger category shopping centres is Mirvac’s Broadway, also in Sydney, with $14,545 per square metre.

The CBD Guns report vindicates Vicinity Centre’s landmark $1.1 billion asset swap deal with Singapore’s GIC late last year as it looked to Amazon-proof its portfolio.

Under that deal, Vicinity exchanged a 49 per cent stake in its Chatswood Chase Sydney, worth $562.3 million, for a 50 per cent stake in GIC’s Queen Victoria Building, The Galeries and The Strand Arcade in Sydney worth $556 million.

The Galeries is also high up in the rankings for productive malls.

CBDs a retail drawcard

In terms of sheer volume of sales, Emporium Melbourne, which is co-owned by Vicinity and GIC, took the honours with $449.35 million in annual turnover.

“With strong employment and resident growth in most capital cities the attraction of CBD centres for retail is substantial,” SCN’s publisher, Michael Lloyd said.

“CBD retailing is an important part of the shopping centre industry.

“You can see this with the international retailers setting foot in the CBD centres as their first location and getting a sense of how the cities trade before they venture out to the suburbs.”

The retail property report notes there are quite a number of centres trading at more than $20,000 per square metre for both total centre and speciality turnover.

According to SCN, Perth and Adelaide are markets to watch, with developments announced at Perth City Central and Forrest Chase in Perth, and Rundle Mall in Adelaide.

“In the near future, these cities will be have a strong retail offer for residents and tourists alike,” it said.

Further out, the major malls are raking in even larger turnovers, although their sales productivity is lower.

In that larger category, as revealed in the Big Guns report earlier this year, there are now five malls with more than $1 billion in annual turnover.