A new study conducted by MSCI on behalf of the South African Council of Shopping Centres looked at the number of shopping centres in South Africa.<\/p>\n
According to the data, as of July 2017 there was an estimated 23.4 million square meters of gross lettable area across 1,959 individual shopping centre.<\/p>\n
However this number is already slightly outdated, with the South African retail development pipeline measuring 1.9 million square metres across 68 centres at the time of the reports publication – the bulk of which are due to be completed in 2018.<\/p>\n
This means that the country is likely to, or has already moved past 2,000 total centres<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The researchers found that around 69% of the aggregate shopping centre floor space can be attributed to multi-tenanted centres with gross lettable areas of 5,000 to 49,000 square meters whilst Regional and Super Regional malls (those larger than 50,000 square meters) account for 22% of total shopping centre gross lettable area.<\/p>\n Other retail types account for the balance of around 9%. These include big-box retailers, airport retail as well as smaller freestanding and local convenience centres.<\/p>\n The data also indicates that the South African shopping centre market size of 23.4 million square meters ranks it in eighth position among the forty-three countries forming part of this analysis \u2013 just behind Australia and France.<\/p>\n The top three countries in terms of shopping centre supply \u2013 the US, China and Canada \u2013 contribute a combined 77% to the overall figure.<\/p>\n South Africa compared to to other countries<\/strong><\/p>\n For the 2016 to 2017 measurement period, the South African market had 418 square meters of the shopping centre lettable area for every 1,000 people.<\/p>\n This places South Africa below the weighted average of 485 square meters per 1,000 capita measured across the 43 markets forming part of the analysis.<\/p>\n The US is rated as having the most shopping centres relative to its population with 2,196 square meters\/1,000 capita – followed by Canada, Australia and Norway.<\/p>\n However South Africa, Canada and the US have the highest level of shopping centre supply expressed relative to household consumption expenditure.<\/p>\n The researchers noted that these\u00a0three countries also have a higher level of demand than other nations, suggesting more room for development and for supply to be absorbed.<\/p>\n Despite this demand,\u00a0\u00a0South Africa\u2019s current shopping centre development pipeline suggests a slowdown in new mall completions for the period 2018-2020 which, combined with a predicted improvement in economic growth, may see South Africa\u2019s shopping centre segment move lower and closer to the global average.<\/p>\n
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