With the opening of new retail centres at Precinct Properties’ Commercial Bay and Scentre Group’s new 277 Westfield Newmarket centre in Auckland, big offshore retailers like Uniqlo, Muji and Apple, among others may finally set up stores in New Zealand this year, according to a study by Colliers International.
Chris Dibble, director of Research for Colliers International, said big foreign retailers that have been waiting in the wings may dip their toes and invest in the New Zealand market this year with the opening of the new retail centres.
Colliers International’s NZ Property Outlook 2019 study revealed physical retail stores may have captured almost 90 per cent of worldwide retail sales but 2019 may be a challenging year for them as online and offline competition mounts and discretionary spending becomes more selective.
“This will see a re-rating of retail asset values in 2019 with those likely to experience uplifts being the owners of assets with supportive demographic catchments, not overly weighted towards clothing and fashion and those transitioning into more experiential, entertainment and food and beverage offers,” Dibble said.
Total annual sales value of commercial office, retail and industrial property in 2019 will fall just shy of the forecast $10 billion year of 2018. This is due to additional legislative compliance and potential tax changes in 2019 that will add complexity, costs and time delays to the sales process.
Approximately 85 per cent of the properties that will sell in 2019 will have an asset value of $2 million or under and be highly sought after by investors and owner-occupiers.
According to the 2019 Property Outlook, numerous opportunities in the prop-tech space will emerge with the release of 5G-ready smartphones this year. Both landlords and occupiers stand to benefit from the advances in technologies that 5G unlocks.
“New Zealand will be geared up but waiting in anticipation as our 5G mobile network is only expected to be available in late 2020 at the earliest,” Dibble said.
