Auckland shops lie vacant despite World Cup

Photo / Richard Robinson

A research report has found Newmarket's retail vacancy rates fell marginally in the last year while the CBD's nearly doubled, even though the central area is Rugby World Cup shopping heartland.

A study from Chris Dibble and Jono Bayer at property specialists Jones Lang LaSalle showed that despite reports of Newmarket's decline as a shopping hub, the area's amount of empty retail space fell.

But the CBD's empty shop floor area rose from 2.4 per cent to 4.7 per cent.

Dibble said bars, restaurants, cafes, fast-food chains and souvenir stores stood to reap the biggest rewards from the cup but general apparel retailers could benefit too.

Dibble and Bayer said no areas they examined were awash with empty space, malls were still popular and Takapuna's vacancy rates remained unchanged at a healthy 4.1 per cent.

"These vacancy rates are still considered low with shopping centres outperforming strip retail. Retailers perceive higher pedestrian counts in shopping centres, thus higher potential clientele base," they said.

Nathan Male of leasing specialists Metro Commercial has just returned from Britain, France and Italy, where he saw large numbers of empty shops.

New Zealand had escaped relatively unscathed, he said.

Dibble and Bayer said Queen St retailers were paying $1500/sq m to $2200/sq m on average.

So a small 50sq m souvenir or shoe retailer could be forking out $100,000 annual rent and a 100sq m to 300sq m chain selling clothing on Auckland's golden mile could be paying $200,000 to $300,000 a year.

And while the CBD had more empty shops, landlords still asked more.

"CBD rents rose marginally over the first half of 2011," Dibble and Bayer said, citing $2175/sq m last year to $2200/sq m this year.