RETAIL
In a recent keynote address at a Gauteng Women ’ s Property Network event , I presented a talk that focused on what is happening across the prevailing retail landscape , using our company ’ s most recent Clur Report of SA Retail Property as context .
The Clur Report , an asset management and benchmarking platform for both listed and unlisted investments , spans more than 3.6m sqm of prime retail space and 15,000 tenancies .
Despite the harsh economic and social climate , the longer-term trend in trading densities ( sales per square metre ) in more than 100 shopping centres in South Africa and Namibia shows a clear improvement since the 2020 / 21 Covid-induced downturn in performance .
An improvement in trading densities has been evident since March 2021 , one year after the hard lockdown , and relative to the pre-Covid 2019 base . Moreover , there is an overall converging trend to the consumer price index .
The Clur Benchmark for All Centres for all of 2021 saw an annualised trading density level of R34 542 / sqm , a 7,2 % increase year on year , she said . In March 2022 , a year after the improvement was first noted , trading density had increased to R35 582 , 5,1 % better than the March 2019 figure and 10.4 % up year on year . The March 2022 performance followed a 10,6 % lift year on year for the 2021 festive season where annualised trading density was recorded at R47 586 . That was 5,7 % better than the 2019 festive season figure .
104 AUGUST 2022 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine