Australia’s Shopping Centres continue to perform strongly despite challenges
The 2026 Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks are released, and the results make it clear that Australia’s shopping centre industry is globally unique, actively managed and thriving in a changing retail world.
The 2026 Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks show that:
Larger centres are leading performance – CBD, super-regional, large sub-regional and large neighbourhood centres were among the strongest-performing classes.
Performance varies markedly by location – inner- and middle-metropolitan centres outperformed those in outer-metropolitan growth areas, highlighting the effects of cost-of-living pressures and differences between population growth and retail spending growth.
Department stores and discount department stores are shifting – the renewed presence of discount department store brands largely reflects operational changes within the discount department store sector, while discount variety stores and discount apparel stores performed well.
Food remains a major growth driver – food continues to strengthen its role across centre types, with growth across everyday needs, take-away food and in-centre dining.
Apparel performance is increasingly polarised – overall apparel performance was broadly flat, with some categories, tenant types and price points weighing on results.
Occupancy costs and tenant mixes are changing – CBD and regional centre occupancy cost ratios continued to increase above others, reflecting post-Covid recovery, while strong leasing churn continued across all asset classes. Mini-major activity and strategic remixing are reshaping centre offers and complicating comparisons with prior years.
The Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks provide essential KPIs for owners, managers, retailers, service providers, and investors interested in asset optimisation, value creation and business performance in shopping centres and retail precincts. It provides guidance, busts myths, and highlights the changes that are so important to Australia’s most dynamic industry sector.
About Shopping Centre Benchmarks
The Urbis Shopping Centre Benchmarks are now in their 35th year and are a trusted source of data insights for owners, developers, tenants, valuers and investors. Supported by the Shopping Centre Council of Australia (SCCA), these comprehensive benchmarks include data from over 516 shopping centres, covering an impressive 14.6 million sqm of gross leasable area (GLA), 46,743 tenants, and a staggering $118.8 billion in aggregated moving annual turnover (MAT), representing approximately 26% of the total Australian retail market.
The Benchmarks utilise data from members of the SCCA as well as Urbis’ broad client base and provide leading insights on tenancy mix, footfall, MAT, productivity and rent levels by category and asset type, supporting informed decisions across the sector.
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