Mr Utteridge said while less empty shops would be a better result, he expected that to come. "Hopefully, that is the calm before it turns better."
Mr Utteridge said there was an "overarching impression of an increase in confidence" which he expected to equate into better news for next year's survey.
He said Rotorua Central now being fully tenanted would also have an impact, with retailers who were unable to get into the mall looking for other central locations. Other businesses were repositioning themselves, either for better locations or better rents.
"There has been a bit of site swapping going on."
Councillor Karen Hunt, Rotorua Lakes Council's Inner City Revitalisation portfolio lead, agreed.
"Many good property owners, with well-maintained buildings and realistic rental prices, are actually finding it easy to attract commercial tenants.
"Clearly some retail businesses are voting with their feet - and their chequebooks - and shifting to these better premises. It's something that a few landlords probably need to think about."
She said it was "not altogether surprising" to see shop vacancy levels remaining around the same ballpark as last year.
"New trends in main street retailing and the advent of online shopping are changing the size of retail footprints and the essential character of retailing in cities across New Zealand. Rotorua is no exception."
She said the council was buoyed by a recently released business confidence survey that showed Rotorua businesses were increasingly optimistic about business activity and investment in the city over the coming 12 months.
"Foot traffic numbers are also trending upwards and our new District Plan provisions are expected to help encourage some businesses back into the wider inner city over time," she said.
"But the real challenge, and one we're putting a lot of work into with our business community partners, is for the look, feel and nature of our inner city to evolve from being just a shopping area as in the past, into a lively and diverse series of precincts for entertainment, dining, the arts, residential living, recreation, and of course shopping."
Inner City Retail Group spokesman Mike Steiner said he believed the survey results were "very encouraging".
"There is so much positivity in the city is is remarkable. It is such a turnaround from where we were 18 months ago."
Mr Steiner said he was currently helping another organisation look for "reasonable size" premises, and it was not an easy task.
"You could have driven past a shop 18 months ago and it would still have been for lease in six months' time. That's not happening now."
He said out of town businesses were now at a point where they were considering Rotorua as a location.
"We now need to start soliciting some more specialty type stores and encouraging them to open up."
He said that while they would never fill all 87 empty shops, if they could manage to fill 25 per cent of the vacant retail spaces in the next two years it would make an enormous difference.
