Lygon St vacancies more than double: report
Iconic Melbourne boulevard Lygon St may have lost some of its lustre, with the famed strip seeing vacancies swell dramatically in the last 12 months.
According to Fitzroys’ annual Walk the Strip report, in 2019 an average of 13.5% of Lygon St shops have been vacant, up from around 5% over the past two years.
Other well-known retail strips have seen vacancies tighten, however, with the section of Richmond’s Bridge Rd between Church St and Burnley St seeing vacancy drop 8.6% to 5.7% in the past 12 months.
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Hawksburn Village now has vacancy of 6.2%, down from more than 10% a year ago, while Port Melbourne’s Bay St is at a very low 3%, after being at 7.2% in 2017.
But some parts of other renowned retail walks are experiencing significant lifts in vacancy.
Parts of Chapel St are experiencing increases in vacancy.
While the South Yarra end of Chapel St has improved its vacancy from 18.1% to 15.6% over the past 12 months, at the trendy and previously tightly held Windsor end vacancies have exploded from 3.9% last year to 11.4% in 2019.
And on Puckle St in Moonee Ponds, vacancies have more than doubled from 4% last year to 8.8% in 2019.
The news comes as service retail emerges as a critical sector in the future of local shopping strips, with 26 of Melbourne’s key strips showing an increase in service retailers taking up space.
This compares to 15 strips that saw an increase in specialty retail, while only eight strips increased their food and beverage offering.
The corner of Church and Swan streets in Richmond.
Across Melbourne, service retail now makes up about 30% of local shopping strips, just behind specialty stores at 34%, while food and beverage occupy 29% and city-wide vacancy rates are at 7%.
“The latest stage of this evolution is the emergence of service retail as an important driver of tenant demand,” Fitzroys’ Director – Agency, David Bourke says.
“Much of the growing population is centred around the shopping and lifestyle strips, and people appreciate the convenience of medical, health and skin care clinics, dentists, optometrists, masseurs, and fitness studios and gyms located nearby,” he says.
“Service retailers have started to move from the periphery of the strips to prime locations. These were locations they previously wouldn’t have considered, but they are now emerging as a major component of Melbourne’s shopping precincts.”
