General News
11 February, 2026
Food precincts lure people
ACROSS Australia, regional shopping centres are evolving into experience-led destinations through dining, wellness, culture and sport offerings to drive engagement, extend dwell time and strengthen their role as community hubs, new CBRE research shows.
The ‘Regional Shopping Centres Reimagined’ report provides an outlook of regional shopping centre market dynamics including tenant mix, supply, and vacancy.
The report shows the regional shopping centre supply pipeline halved since 2020 compared to the 10-year average while construction costs have increased around 30% over the past five years, supporting high occupancy and stabilising leasing fundamentals.
Effective rents dipped during 2020-2022 but rebounded from 2022, while re-leasing spreads turned positive in 2023.
CBRE estimates national regional shopping centre vacancy at 2.7% in 2025. Centres built post-2000 show lower vacancy than pre-2000 while metro locations average 1.9% vacancy compared to 3.8% for non-metro locations.
The report notes shifting consumer demand towards convenience and mixed-use precincts had reduced appetite for traditional enclosed formats, with owners now prioritising repositioning over new builds.
In addition, between 2016/17 and 2024/25 regional shopping centres saw shifts in tenant mixed with fashion and accessories falling while food and beverage and mini majors increased.
CBRE retail research head Kate Bailey noted the uplift in food and beverage reflects the growing role of dining and social experiences as a key driver of visitation, particularly as centres reposition to compete with online retail. “While discretionary retail faces growing competition from e-commerce, food spend continues to grow steadily, underpinned by its experiential, social and in-person nature making it a key driver of in-store growth,” she said.
“For landlords, this means food isn’t just a leasing category, it’s a strategic anchor. Investment in dining precincts delivers stronger visitation, longer dwell time and higher cross-spend across the centre.”
The report further highlights the growing trend of experience-led retail by identifying the ‘Five Es’ elevating regional shopping centres: eat, escape, energise, engage and entertain.
CBRE’s retail property management and place advisory head Sheree Griff said the shift towards strong performing mini majors was a notable market trend.
“Mini-majors, often focusing on convenience and leveraging services like click-and-collect, drive consistent foot traffic and have higher productivity per square metre than department stores and specialties, which make them valuable anchors for shopping centres,” Ms Griff added.
Mini majors remained the largest category at 32% followed by fashion and food and beverage at 30%, highlighting the strength of essential and experience-led retail.
