This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
RETAIL sales outpaced forecasts to increase by 3.3% in July across Australia, despite the reintroduction of COVID-19 lockdown measures in Victoria.
Preliminary figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Victoria was the only state in the country to record a monthly fall, seasonally adjusted, down 2%. Trade was 12.2% higher than July 2019.
“The rise across the rest of the country was driven by continued strength in household goods retailing, and the recovery in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services, and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing,” said Ben James, director of the ABS’s Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys.
“Victoria’s decline in retail turnover coincided with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, and the re-introduction of stage three stay-at-home restrictions in July, impacting turnover.”
Nationally, household goods retailing led the monthly rises across the industries, above 30% levels of 12 months’ prior, with sales of furniture, whitegoods and electrical items remaining high.
Other retailing and department stores saw similar monthly rises to household goods in percentage terms. JB Hi-Fi last posted a 33% jump in its underlying net profit, and sales at online household goods retailer Kogan nearly doubled in June.
Food retailing grew of 1.2%, with supermarket and grocery store turnover elevated in Victoria especially as panic buying returned ahead of the latest round of restrictions.
Meanwhile, Scentre Group, the owner of Westfield shopping malls, has started locking out non-rent-paying tenants out of their stores as rent relief negotiations broke down.
ASX-listed Mosaic Group, operator of Noni B, Rivers and Katies, had been locked out of 129 of its stores across the country, affecting about 400 employees.
Scentre Group’s decision may represent a rebalancing of negotiations between landlords and tenants. Solomon Lew declared early in the pandemic that his Premier Investments stores, including Smiggle, Just Jeans and Jay Jays, would not pay rent while they were shut.
The Victorian government has just extended a moratorium on rental increases and evictions for commercial and residential tenants until the end of this year. They had been due to expire on 29th September and were introduced with the first lockdown.
It is also establishing a $60 million fund to support smaller commercial landlords, who could receive payments of up to $3,000 for each tenancy. Payments for eligible residential landlords and tenants under the existing program will be increased from $2,000 to $3,000, and previous recipients can apply for an additional $1,000.
