Karrinyup Shopping Centre joins national ‘Big Guns’ of retail after hitting $1 billion revenue

Karrinyup is the first shopping centre in WA to nudge $1 billion in annual sales, earning it a place in a national tally of the so-called Big Guns of retail.

The shopping destination reached $980 million in annual sales for the 2024 calendar year, revealed in this year’s annual tally by Shopping Centre News, making it the first centre in WA to come so close to the milestone.

It follows a 10 per cent lift in annual turnover compared with 2023.

The Big Guns leaderboard of the nation’s 20 biggest earners placed Karrinyup Shopping Centre 14th for highest turnover in the country.

Cockburn Gateway, Karrinyup and Rockingham Centre were all recorded in the Top 20 national Big Guns list for annual turnover per square metre.

Westfield Booragoon, Cockburn, Karrinyup and Westfield Carousel made the top 20 list for turnover by specialty stores.

Karrinyup is among a swathe of shopping centres owned by Unisuper, which has invested close to half of its unlisted real estate portfolio in Australian malls.

The centre is managed by GPT, whose group head of retail, Chris Barnett, said demand for retail was at an all-time high.

Mr Barnett said the group’s research showed “an underlying shortfall of 1.1 million sqm of retail space in shopping centres nationally by 2030”.

“We are experiencing unprecedented demand for quality retail across all our centres,” he said.

“This has been driven by the nation’s growing population, improvements in consumer household spending, and ongoing requests from our retailers to grow their footprint, both instore and online.”

Mr Barnett said Karrinyup had outperformed due to its exceptional supermarket and its array of more than “mini-major retailers”.

“We are proud to be the first shopping centre in Western Australia to achieve this impressive milestone of $1 billion annual sales,” he said.

Sales at the centre have seen an uplift of 8 per cent on its moving annual turnover since last year.

The centre welcomed the equivalent to 13.4 million customers last year, which equates to growth of more than 4 per cent.

GPT does not address the cost-of-living crisis in its recent research paper, but paints a rosy picture for shops ahead.

The April research anticipates population growth and a 3.3 per cent increase in retail sales per annum, per square metre, in Australia.

It said shopping centres were the beneficiary of growing household balance sheets in recent years, which had enjoyed a total equity growth of 42 per cent, or 7 per cent each year.

At the same time, the potential for the new supply of shopping centres was limited by feasibility constraints in the construction sector.