It’s no secret that shopping centres have been a virtual no-go for property punters for almost two years. But the tide has seemingly turned, with retail-focused property stocks finally back on investor radars.

Mall owners, including former market darling Hyprop Investments, Liberty Two Degrees (L2D), Resilient Reit, Fairvest, Vukile and Attacq, have notched up healthy share price gains in recent months. That follows the release of better-than-expected trading metrics for the third and fourth quarters among a number of retail-focused real estate investment trusts (Reits), which has no doubt boosted sentiment in a sector ravished by pandemic-related lockdowns, curfews and alcohol bans. Of course, the July riots in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal dealt a further blow to retail landlords...