Quantify Consulting Ltd has released its quarterly occupancy count, which looks at three main shopping blocks in George St — the Farmers Block, Edinburgh Way and the Golden Block.
It found, following on from the trend over the past year, occupancy had increased in the past three months, most significantly in the Golden Block.
The block had no new vacancies this quarter, and three new leasings.
Occupancy increased by 2% to 93%, and there were 43 sites occupied and three vacant — the block’s highest occupancy level since the pandemic began.
At the last count in August, there were four sites vacant on the block.
In the Farmers Block there were 21 sites occupied and five vacant, and in Edinburgh Way 53 were occupied and four vacant, which was the same in the last survey.
Overall occupancy in Dunedin’s main retail street was 91%, and there were 12 sites vacant.
One of the national chains to open in the Golden Block in the past three months was men’s clothing store 3 Wise Men.
The store opened just after Dunedin dropped to Alert Level 2 a delay because of August’s lockdown.
The chain’s owner Richard Miles, of Auckland, said the company could see through its online sales there was a solid market in Dunedin and wider Otago.
Opening a store just after lockdown was incredibly hard as Auckland staff were not able to be down in Dunedin to train new staff and help co-ordinate contractors to finish the fitting of the site.
Despite that, the company still had ‘‘total confidence’’ in Dunedin’s retail sector, and sales for the first month had been ‘‘very positive,’’ Mr Miles said.
Colliers Otago commercial broker Dean Collins said there had been multiple new leases around the Golden Block over the past three to six months, which were a mixture of retailers already in the block shifting around and some new businesses.
Despite the lockdown and the ongoing effects the pandemic had had on retail, there was still a good number of inquiries about sites.
‘‘It is certainly something to consider and gives people’s confidence a bit of a check but there is certainly a lot of activity,’’ Mr Collins said.
The level of inquiry would be giving landlords confidence in the Dunedin market, rent levels holding ‘‘pretty strong’’.
There were a couple of deals under way at the moment that would see some new tenants in the George St area, Mr Collins said.
