Commercial Retail Property Transactions Stall

 

The sale of shopping centres has slumped. The Data App (TDA) estimate shopping centre sales across Australia declined by 52% in value terms in the three months to end of May, to a mere $266.2m. This compares to $562.9m in the same period a year earlier. The number of transactions is also down to a trickle, averaging a shade over 5 in the three months to May, which is less than half the number a year earlier.

Needless to say, the volume of space transacted is also well down on a year ago. In the three months to May, which also incorporates a period when the impact of Covid-19 on the economy was minimal, the volume to retail space transacted was at its lowest level since March 2017.

Since activity has dried up further the amount of floor space changing hands is likely to remain, or decline further.

Similarly, as shown right, the value of transaction has slowed sharply since the start of the year, to be half it was a year earlier.

Given the limited amount of stock which has recently been traded, as well as being of varying quality and across different types of retail asset class, the level of cap rates is probably not a very representative.