Perth Sunday trading delivers boost to Federation Centres WA malls

The decision to allow Perth shops to trade on Sundays helped push up the performance of Federation Centres' WA portfolio of shopping centres, the group has revealed in its March quarter update.

The new laws were introduced on August 26 last year allowing all general retail shops in the Perth metropolitan area, including major supermarkets and department stores, the right to open their doors on Sunday between 11am and 5pm.

“Following the introduction of Sunday trading in August 2012, the performance of our WesternAustralian portfolio was particularly strong, recording moving average turnover growth of 4.9% at the end of the period," said Federation Centres chief operating officer Mark Wilson.

The performance of the WA portfolio was substantially better than annual retail sales growth of 2.4% and the performance of Federation Centres shopping malls in other states.

"Our NSW portfolio also showed encouraging signs, with moving average turnover growth of 2.5%.

"The portfolio located in NSW and Western Australia represents approximately 50% of the total by value.

"Trading conditions in Victoria and Queensland however remained more subdued, with moving average turnover growth of only 0.3% and 1.2% respectively over the period," he said.

Overall Federation Centres reported a "solid" first quarter of the year with occupancy at a rate of 99.4%.

Overall annual sales growth increased to 2.4% at 31 March 2013 from 2.0% at 31 December 2012, with specialty retailers continuing a positive trend to show annual sales growth of 2.5%.

Federation Centres, formely called Centro Retail Australia, has a portfolio of 46 shopping centres worth $4.4 billion.

It has recently sold over $200 million worth of non-core shopping centre assets held in Centro syndicates, while also acquiring the Centro at Gympie for %63.8 million.