Malls now feeling the squeeze
Empty malls hurt property investors
Mega-malls are starting to have a negative impact — even on properties within their own portfolios
Property stocks may well still be reporting stronger results than many of their JSE-listed retail tenants. But even mall owners are starting to feel the pinch amid dwindling consumer spend, growing competition from new shopping centres and retailers cutting back on store space. Property stocks with sizeable shopping centre portfolios — including Growthpoint Properties, Hyprop Investments, Resilient Reit, Fortress Income Fund, SA Corporate Real Estate Fund, Vukile Property Fund and Fairvest — have, in recent weeks, all reported inflation-beating dividend growth for their respective December reporting periods. Hyprop (16.6%), Resilient (16.2%) and Fairvest (9.6%) have impressed with above-market increases. However, when one looks only at the underlying performance of local retail portfolios, the picture looks less rosy. Granted, there hasn’t yet been a noticeable change in some performance metrics, such as vacancies or rental arrears. But there’s no doubt that trading densities (turno...
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