Shopping centre performance index launched by IPD SA

Stan Garrun, Managing Director of IPD South Africa.

Stronger than expected retail sales growth in the third quarter of 2011 has helped to maintain the robust performance of South African shopping centres, according to the IPD Retail Trading Density Index.

The new index, sponsored by the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC), reveals the trading performance of different types of shopping centres and different tenant types. The index will be released by IPD on a quarterly basis.

Although the turnover growth of shopping centres has recovered from the downturn in 2009 and early 2010, momentum during the recovery has now slowed and dropped below inflation for some types of centres. It is the larger centres where the growth in trading density, which is measured as turnover per square metre, has been the most muted.

For the year to September 2011, trading density increased by 5.2% for Super Regional centres, by 5.5% for Regional centres and just 3.8% for Small Regional centres when compared to the previous year.

In contrast, the smaller Community and Neighbourhood type centres increased their trading densities by 10.2% and 15.0% respectively. These smaller centres generally rely more heavily on basic necessities such as groceries to drive their sales, compared to larger centres with more specialised tenant types which are targeted more towards discretionary spending.

Stan Garrun, Managing Director of IPD South Africa, commented: “Mixed signals in the economy – where retail sales are strong yet consumer confidence has dipped significantly in recent months – highlights the need to carefully monitor shopping centre performance. It is important to more pointedly access the real performance of properties and tenant categories, which IPD is doing in this new index series based on the underlying turnovers and densities obtained directly from the shopping centre owners and managers. The Christmas trading period is upon us and the Q4 2011 results due out early in 2012 will reveal critical details about the health of the retail economy, with key implications for centre owners, managers and tenants.”

Amanda Stops, General Manager of the South African Council of Shopping Centres, comments: “The new index has been designed to enhance information sharing in SA’s retail property sector and provide an important benchmarking tool for the industry. The SACSC is pleased to present this joint initiative with IPD to provide a measurement instrument of immense value and insight and ultimately drive informed strategies and decision making for retail property in SA”.