SA's shopping malls make big comeback, with Redefine's vacancies lower than pre-Covid

The retail apocalypse feared by some during the heights of the pandemic turned out to be a washout, with one of SA's biggest landlords, Redefine Properties, saying its retail vacancies are back to pre-pandemic levels, and brick-and-mortar stores remain as vital as ever.

Redefine, whose shopping malls include Boksburg's East Rand Mall and Cape Town's Blue Route Mall and Kenilworth Centre, saw its retail vacancies shrink to 4.4% in its year to end August, meaning its malls had slightly more tenants than in February and August 2019, when the retail vacancies stood at 4.6%.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group's retail vacancies hovered around 5.6%.