Business owners in once-thriving Melbourne shopping precincts say sky-high rents are driving them to the wall, sparking fears of the death of the suburban shopping strip.
The issue is particularly pronounced in Eaton Mall and surrounding streets in Oakleigh, in Melbourne’s south-east.
Locals and traders alike say the proud area is struggling.
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Jim Samiotis, from Prahran Seafoods on Portman, has lived in Oakleigh since 1975 and worked on Portman Street for seven years.
He told 9News he’s never seen things this bad and blamed soaring rent.
“It’s too high and businesses can’t afford it,” he said.
“I don’t feel very good because who knows maybe I’m the next one to go.”
But it’s not just rising rents.
A combination of cost of living pressures for customers and the ever-growing popularity and convenience of major shopping centres and factory outlets are also contributing to the decline of the traditional high street, according to executive managing director of CBRE Victoria Jarrod Frazer.
“More affluent suburbs are doing really well but in those secondary locations, we are seeing really challenging market conditions at the moment,” he said, singling out Bridge Road in Richmond, Fitzroy Street in St Kilda and Chapel Street, South Yarra as examples of shopping strips that are struggling.
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By comparison, Church Street in Brighton and High Street in Armadale have been “thriving”.
But Frazer is optimistic that things will improve across the board.
“We’ll see a lot of development in the next couple of years,” he said.
“Greater density (and) we’ve still got really strong migration numbers so we’re quite bullish about where the retail strip market is heading.”
Businesses consistently told 9News that rising rent costs were the biggest issue.
The Property Council’s Executive Victorian Director Cath Evans said building owners were increasingly dealing with higher taxes and charges.
“That has led owners to pass on those costs to their tenants which of course has increased the cost of running a business,” she said.
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