)
Westfield shopping centre owner Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) appears to be avoiding the cost-of-living crisis as customers flocked to the company’s properties nationally, leading to an increase in visitor numbers and record-breaking sales in the first 18 weeks of this year.
Scentre Group, which operates 42 Westfield centres nationally, has revealed that foot traffic was up by an extra 4.1 million visitors this calendar year to 4 May, with store sales for the three months to the end of March up 2.8 per cent to $6.7 billion.
The increase in store turnover is a step up from the 1.9 per cent increase in 2024 for Scentre Group.
The latest figures deliver record sales of $29.1 billion for the group on a rolling basis to 31 March 2025. The full-year figure for calendar 2024 was $29 billion.
Demand from customers is also reflected in demand from retail tenants with Scentre Group reporting 99.6 per cent occupancy across its portfolio at the end of the quarter - unchanged from the end of December.
Retail tenants were also willing to pay more with average specialty rents increasing 4.4 per cent.
“We continue to see strong demand from businesses to lease space in our destinations,” says Scentre Group CEO Elliott Rusanow.
“The group completed 635 leasing deals in the quarter, with an average leasing spread of plus-2.1 per cent.
“Works have progressed on the staged redevelopment of Westfield Bondi in Sydney where the new Virgin Active lifestyle fitness offer and new rebel rCX concept store on Level 1 will open in June 2025.
“The expansion of Westfield Sydney on the corner of Market and Castlereagh Streets in Sydney’s CBD continues, with new luxury brands to progressively open from May 2025.”
Westfield Bondi has been in the spotlight in recent weeks as the inquest gets under way into the random slaying of six innocent people on 13 April last year.
Scentre Group last month observed the one-year anniversary of the tragic event alongside the NSW Government, Waverley Council and the community, adding that its team is providing full assistance to the NSW Coroner with the hearings scheduled to continue until the end of May.
Scentre Group posted $1.13 billion in funds from operations in the 12 months to the end of December last year, delivering investors a distribution of 17.2c per security.
Distributions are expected to grow by 2.5 per cent this calendar year to 17.63c per security as funds from operations are expected to hit $1.18 billion.
Scentre Group notes that its 42 Westfield centres are positioned on more than 670 hectares of land, providing significant development potential for the group.
In March, Westfield Warringah in Sydney was declared by NSW as a state significant development with the potential to create up to 1,500 apartments.
“This is a significant opportunity for our business and gives us the option to use an accelerated planning process to deliver growth,” says Rusanow.
“We continue to collaboratively participate in state and local planning processes to secure similar opportunities across many of our destinations during 2025 and beyond.”
)
