South Africa’s biggest vs busiest shopping mall – and the one trouble they have in common

Lightstone Property’s latest assessment of traffic volumes at South Africa’s malls shows that Mall of Africa is the busiest shopping centre in the country – but the title doesn’t come without its troubles.

Despite being the busiest mall in South Africa, measured in terms of vehicle traffic, the centre is still lagging behind other big malls in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic – a challenge the country’s biggest shopping mall – Fourways Mall – also faces.

“While most shopping centres have recently reported higher foot traffic, our data suggested vehicle visits to two centres – Fourways Mall and Mall of Africa – have not in fact recovered to pre-Covid levels,” Lightstone said.

Plotting mall visits and dwell time—time spent at the mall—across the two retail behemoths, Lighstone’s data showed that both malls were faring relatively well before the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the country was forced into lockdown in early 2020.

Since the end of the pandemic and lockdowns in mid-2022, visits and dwell time have both been improving, but have not yet reached levels seen pre-pandmic.

The only exception to this appears to be December (2022 and 2023), when the malls experience a seasonal jump in visits as the festive season kicks in.

December 2023 saw record levels of traffic—however, the dwell times have not caught up.

According to Lightstone, the data may reflect shifting demographics at the malls, but could also be showing a growing shift to online shopping, which accelerated during Covid.

“This might be leading to more permanent shopper behavioural change, both in terms of number of visits and dwell times,” it said.

Comparing the two malls directly, however, Mall of Africa far outstrips Fourways in terms of visits and dwell time, despite being only the eighth biggest mall in the country.

Fourways Mall is the biggest in the country by a tight margin, covering just over 178,000 square metres of gross lettable area (GLA).

Following its re-launch in 2019—just ahead of the pandemic—the centre has struggled to live up to its promise, leading to a significant strategy shift this year.

Around R400 million is being invested into the mall to improve efficiencies and its service offering, in the hopes of drawing more foot traffic back to the centre.

Since the announcement of the strategy shift, the mall has seen improvements. It significantly increased its retail offerings, introducing 9,642 sqm of new brands and approximately 20,000 sqm of lease renewals.

Read: R770 million shopping mall opens in South Africa with new life