Australia Retail Figures Q1 2026

Key Points:

• Household spending rose 0.3% in February, following the same 0.3% rise in January and a fall of 0.4% in December. Household spending is now 4.6% higher than the same time last year.
• The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index declined heavily by 12.5% to 80.1 in April, from 91.6 in March.
• Net face rents grew across all sectors in Q1 2026. CBD secondary and super prime assets recorded the highest growth of 2.3% and 2.2% respectively q-o-q.
• Shopping centre and large format yields continued to compress over Q1 2026 but at a slower rate to the previous quarter with regional centres compressing by 1 bp and sub-regional and large format centres compressing by 2 bp and 4 bp q-o-q respectively. We saw a CBD super prime expansion of 5bps.
• In Q1 2026, there were 32 retail transactions (greater than $5 million) totaling c. $1,674 billion. Retail transaction volumes in Q1 2026 were 12% less then Q1 2025.