Retail’s proof is in the pudding

05-08-2004

Retail property’s popularity continues to amaze. The expected increase in shopping centre space for 2004 is already at a healthy 198.000m² and growing.

The Cape Peninsula has 9 000m² more space in the offing, Port Elizabeth 19 000m², Pretoria 69 000m² and the Reef 101 000m². With the exception of Cape Town, all major cities have shown an increase on both 2002 and 2003 figures.

Rode’s statistics show major developments are taking place on the Reef, where large centres such as the new Clearwater (57.000m²) in Roodepoort and the Festive Mall (39.000m²) in Kempton Park are under construction.

As of late there has also been an increased interest in retail developments in townships. Developments in these areas used to be marginal, so this trend is of great interest to observers.

“South Africa is and always will be a consumer society,” says Rode CEO Erwin Rode. “These figures reflect the fact that our citizens would rather shop than save, and developers are clearly aware of this. Our evidence confirms this, as do the record years reported by retailers like Truworths.”

Further evidence of retail’s popularity is the fact that capitalization rates for shopping centres have steadily improved ahead of those of other property types, a sign of shopping centres’ increased favour amongst investors.

With the exception of smaller cities such as East London, Rode’s rental indices show that street-front shops continue to suffer at the expense of shopping centres.