Canberra retail market defies national trends with steady growth

Canberra's retail market has demonstrated unusual resilience through the cost-of-living pressures affecting consumer spending nationally, with the territory's retail spending holding above the national average growth rate — a function of the public service employment base that provides income stability and job security to the majority of Canberra's households, insulating consumer spending in the ACT from the employment uncertainty that depresses retail spending in more cyclically exposed regional economies.

Westfield Belconnen and the Canberra Centre in the CBD are the two dominant shopping centres, together accounting for the majority of Canberra's discretionary retail spending and providing anchor tenancy for the national and international brands that treat Canberra as a tertiary retail market worthy of a full-price presence given its population's above-average income profile. Both centres have maintained occupancy rates above 97 per cent through periods of national retail distress that have seen vacancy climb significantly in comparable centres in other markets.

The CBD retail precinct around Bunda Street and the surrounding laneways has developed a growing independent retail and hospitality character that complements the major centre offer, with specialty food retailers, bookshops, homewares boutiques, and coffee roasters creating a walkable shopping experience that is distinct from the suburban centre environment and that attracts the significant professional and public servant population who live and work in Canberra's inner north and inner south.

Online retail growth has been more muted in Canberra than the national average, reflecting the higher proportion of Canberra's population that is in professional and management roles with structured working hours that allow weekday in-person shopping, and the relatively compact geography that makes physical retail accessible without the commuting time that makes online shopping more attractive in larger, more dispersed cities.

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