Dominant regional shopping centres are enjoying healthy growth rates, despite reports of slowed wholesale and retail trade sales.

Patrick Flanagan, Flanagan and Gerard Property Group executive director and founder, said regional centres 40000m² in size or more would not be too hard hit by economic declines and would not have any significant tenant vacancy rates.

Flanagan said examples of dominant regional players included Cape Town’s Canal Walk and TygerValley; Johannesburg’s Sandton City, Eastgate Mall and Menlyn; and KwaZulu-Natal’s Pavilion and Gateway shopping centres.

He said: “Where there is a slowdown or concern are the discretionary shopping exposed centres, such as furniture, motor cars and household appliances.

“The dominant centres are protected or sheltered from these factors because their main focus would be on fashion, food and other services.”

Flanagan said in the last 15 years South Africa had gone through an economic restructuring that had led to more people being employed, and had resulted in greater buying power.

Wayne Abegglen, chief executive of Canal Walk, said the centre had experienced an increase in both the number of shoppers and retailers’ turnover.

Abegglen said: “The number of vehicles parking at Canal Walk is also on the rise and there is still a substantial demand from retailers for space in our centre.”

Kashmir Singh, centre manager for the year-old Greenstone Shopping Centre in Edenvale, Johannesburg, said retailers reported good sales last year compared to this year, despite the somewhat strained retail climate with load shedding and high inflation and interest rates affecting their customer base.

Singh said she and the Sasol Pension fund were extremely happy with the sales and number of visitors since the centre opened.


Original artice in The Times