South Yarra is the ultimate lifestyle destination brimming with energy, enterprise, world-class culinary experiences, fashion, and hospitality.
Read the Place Activation Plan for South Yarra or find out more about South Yarra in the economic snapshot below.
Economic Snapshot
October 2025 - March 2026 Economic Snapshot(PDF, 661KB)
What's happening in this precinct?
South Yarra has performed well compared to last year, with higher spend in every month and total local spend up by 8.5%. The largest percentage growth was in pubs, bars and taverns, which grew by over 25%, and the largest total increase was restaurants at over $6M growth. Restaurants remain the largest spend subcategory. Two thirds of all spend occurs during daytime hours, with the busiest street activity occurring at 5pm. Total customers have increased by 12.3% from last year. Toorak Road has decreased shop vacancies slightly, but Chapel Street has more vacancies this year, with the majority of new vacancies clustered between Commercial Road and the Jam Factory site.
The economy
- Daytime spend – $163.2M
- Night-time spend – $82.8M
- Total local spend – $246M (up 8.5% from last year)
- Total customers – 298K (up 12.3% from last year)
- Highest spend day – 14 February 2026
- Highest weekly spend day – Saturdays
- Spend origin – 35% residents, 65% visitors
| October - March monthly spend |
|
2024-25 |
2025-26 |
| October |
$38,381,701 |
$41,529,000 |
| November |
$39,895,494 |
$41,611,000 |
| December |
$40,720,952 |
$44,508,000 |
| January |
$34,297,797 |
$38,928,000 |
| February |
$34,879,891 |
$38,333,000 |
| March |
$38,582,552 |
$41,129,000 |
|
October 2025 - March 2026 top spend categories
|
|
Category
|
Subcategory
|
Total spend
|
|
Discretionary retail
|
Department stores, clothing and accessories
|
$32,889,000
|
|
Other discretionary retail
|
$17,531,000
|
|
Food retailing
|
Groceries and other food retailing
|
$18,921,000
|
|
Supermarkets
|
$41,496,000
|
|
Tourism and entertainment
|
Takeaway and fast-food outlets
|
$9,499,000
|
|
Restaurants
|
$48,453,000
|
|
Pubs, taverns and bars
|
$15,221,000
|
|
Cafes
|
$8,010,000
|
|
Attractions, events and recreation
|
$8,705,000
|
Vacancy and occupancy
- Vacancies now filled – 25 since July 2025
- Changed tenancies – 20 since July 2025
- Newly vacant premises – 23 since July 2025
|
|
January 2026 vacancy rate
|
Change
|
|
Chapel Street
|
14.41%
|
Up 2.19%
|
|
Toorak Road
|
8.89%
|
Down 0.76% |
Street activity
- Busiest days – Wednesdays
- Busiest times – 5 pm
Visitor demographics
- Top customer age band – 25-34, 29.2% of visitors
- Top customer life stage – Young singles and couples, 30.7% of visitors
|
Top 5 non-Stonnington spend origin locations
|
|
South Yarra – West
|
$9.7M
|
|
Richmond (South) – Cremorne
|
$5.3M
|
| Albert Park |
$4.7M
|
| St Kilda – West |
$3.6M
|
|
St Kilda East
|
$3.3M
|
Data sourcing: Pedestrian activity data current as of 8 April 2026. Source: City of Stonnington Pedestrian counters. Spend data current as of 24 April 2026 and is subject to revisions. Sourced from banking transaction data. Vacancy data current as of January 2026. Source: Vacancy Review, prepared by E3 valuations and commissioned by City of Stonnington.
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