This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIA’s three priciest suburban retail strips are located in Queensland and Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise has retained its mantle as the most expensive, according to new CB Richard Ellis.
For the fifth year running, Cavill Avenue ranks as the most expensive strip with an average net face rent of $2,400 per sqm. Hastings Street in Noosa was second on the list at $2,200 per sqm, followed by The Esplanade at Mooloolaba ($1,800 per sqm).
As at March 2009, the top ten retail strips in regard to net face rents were as follows:
Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise (QLD)
Hastings Street, Noosa (QLD)
The Esplanade, Moloolaba (QLD)
Bay View Terrace, Claremont (WA)
Oxford Street, Paddington Street (NSW)
South Terrace, Freemantle (WA)
Campbell Parade, Bondi (NSW)
Tedder Avenue, Main Beach (QLD)
The Corso, Manly (NSW)
Broadbeach, Gold Coast (QLD)
CBRE global research & consulting director Jennifer Beard said there had been considerable changes in the rankings.
Oxford Street in Paddington had continued to slip down in the list, having been leapfrogged in the latest survey by Bay View Terrace in Western Australia. WA had also claimed the number six position on the list for South Terrace in Fremantle.
While QLD strips dominated the top 10 South Australia was the other stand out. Despite having no entrants on the top 10 list, the Jetty Road Strip in Glenelg, Adelaide witnessed by far the strongest rental growth across all the strips monitored in the CBRE report.
SA also recorded the strongest overall net face rental growth in the year to March 2009, with the four strips producing rental growth of 3.7% over the 12 month period.
Beard said the growth in Adelaide is likely to have been influenced by very strong retail turnover, housing starts and international tourist arrivals growth, particularly when compared with most other Australian states.
“The other factor that is likely to have influenced the rate of growth over the last few years has been the low rental base which the Adelaide strips have come from,” Beard said.
However, while SA recorded strong rental growth, the overall trend was for a decline in rents, as weaker financial market conditions took a toll on the retail market.
Net face rents across the Pacific region for prime strips fell by 0.6% over the year to March, with South Australia (3.7%) and Queensland (0.4%) the only states to display overall rental growth. New Zealand’s suburban strips suffered the largest overall rental decline (-8.5%), while NSW and WA rents remained reasonably stable.
One noticeable absentee from the Top 10 list was Victoria, with the highest ranking strip being Chapel Street in South Yarra which came in at No. 11 in the rankings.
However, CBRE regional director retail services Joshua Loudoun said that while no Victorian strips were in the Top 10 it should be noted that Melbourne had numerous, highly regarded high streets.
Australian Property Journal
