Main street still the place to be

MAIN street shopping locations and bulky goods centres are emerging as standout performers in the retail property sector, according to leasing agents.

Burgess Rawson’s Mel Vinen said strip-shopping locations, such as Oxford Street in Leederville, Fremantle’s Market Street or Subiaco’s Rokeby Road continued to draw significant interest from national retailers looking to build a presence in the Western Australian market.

“Retailers from the east coast love Leederville, Subiaco and Mt Lawley, so they’re still the hot spots,” Ms Vinen told WA Business News.

“Everyone wants to be on Rokeby Road, Beaufort Street, or Oxford Street.

“The level of inquiry for Claremont has decreased, and I think it’s due to everything that’s happening with the Claremont Quarter at the moment.

“There have been a lot of incentives offered to tenants coming in to the new centre, to actually get the deals done.”

Ms Vinen said strip-shopping growth extended to Fremantle’s Market Street, where growing average rents were changing the dynamic of the street.

“I’ve just done a transaction on Market Street in Fremantle and I’m blown away by the prices that they are getting,” she said.

“The current market evidence indicates $1,000 per square metre for Market Street, but most people would be well and truly under the current market rate there.

“At that level, though, there is a concern among food retailers that they can’t maintain that level of rent, so we’ve seen some tenancy changes.”

Still at the top of strip-shopping locations however, Ms Vinen said, was the increasingly high-end King Street, with average rents north of $5,000/sqm.

In the bulky goods sector, Burgess Rawson sales and leasing consultant Mike Rowe said traditional, established areas remained the strongest performing areas for bulky goods, but new developments in suburbs such as Cockburn and Myaree were bridging the gap.

Bulky goods retail categories include furniture, whitegoods, electrical equipment, bedding and manchester, lighting, automotive parts, camping and outdoor equipment, tools, building materials and do-it-yourself and homemaker products.

“The strong areas are still traditional areas, Scarborough Beach Road, Stirling Highway, and then you go out to Joondalup and Cannington,” Mr Rowe said.

“Leach Highway at Myaree is going very well, and Midland has picked up.

“A lot of retailers have been surprised at how strong the catchment is out that way, because you do get the country people from Kalgoorlie, the mining-type people, there is also a lot of wealth in the hills, there are a lot of people with substantial homes, so the catchment area near Midland is surprisingly strong.”

Burgess Rawson managing director Andrew McKerracher said the newly established centre at South Central, near Armadale, was emerging as a bulky goods powerhouse.

“Three or four of the traders down there are state leaders of their respective groups,” he said.

“The retailers are very happy with what’s going on down there.”