How are we spending our money?
High Street’s strength in boutique goods and fashion is evolving, with spend in department stores and clothing shrinking as compared to market share for the same period last year, but strong growth in specialised and luxury goods. The peak period for spend and visitation remains on Saturdays, with spend increasing in the leadup to the weekend. It would be expected that spend will begin to trend upwards again in the upcoming quarter, with the combination of Spring and Christmas spend benefiting sectors that dominate High Street’s business mix.
Place Activation Plan for Armadale
Economic Snapshot
October 2024 to March 2025(PDF, 332KB)
What's happening in this precinct?
The total number of customers shopping in High Street is up 2% compared to the same period of last year, despite spend falling 5.8% in the same period. Over two-thirds of spend on the street is by visitors to the area with the largest non-Stonnington cohort travelling from Caulfield North. The precinct is heavily reliant on discretionary retail, mostly in department stores, clothing and accessories - although there are a few cafes in the area, the primary draw is fashion shopping. The ongoing appeal of the street is evidenced by continued low vacancy rates, with less that 5% of commercial properties vacant in the January audit.
The economy
- Daytime spend – $44.4M
- Night-time spend – $4.5M
- Total local spend – $50M (down 5.8% from last year)
- Total customers – 49K (up 2% from last year)
- Highest spend day – 18 February 2025
- Highest weekly spend day – Saturdays
- Spend origin – 31% residents, 69% visitors
| October-March monthly spend |
|
2023-24 |
2024-25 |
| October |
$9,095,933 |
$8,723,000 |
| November |
$9,543,249 |
$9,047,000 |
| December |
$10,329,609 |
$9,245,000 |
| January |
$7,049,894 |
$6,641,000 |
| February |
$8,592,308 |
$7,819,000 |
| March |
$8,117,063 |
$8,182,000 |
|
October 2024 - March 2025 top spend categories
|
|
Category
|
Subcategory
|
Total spend
|
|
Discretionary retail
|
Other discretionary retail
|
$4,947,000
|
|
Department stores, clothing and accessories
|
$25,570,000
|
|
Food retailing
|
Groceries and other food retailing
|
$842,000
|
| Tourism and entertainment |
Restaurants
|
$2,100,000
|
| Takeaway and fast-food outlets |
$530,000 |
|
Cafes
|
$3,378,000
|
Vacancy and occupancy
- Vacancies now filled – 5 since August 2024
- Changed tenancies - 8 since August 2024
- Newly vacant premises - 9 since August 2024
|
|
Jan 25 vacancy rate
|
Change
|
|
High Street
|
4.80%
|
Down 1.11%
|
Street activity
- Busiest days - Saturdays
- Busiest times – 1 PM
Visitor demographics
- Top customer age band – 25-34, 23.2% of visitors
- Top customer life stage – Young singles, 24.3% of visitors
|
Top 5 non-Stonnington spend origin locations
|
|
Caulfield – North
|
$1.8M
|
| Caulfield – South |
$786K
|
| Glen Iris – East |
$748K
|
| Brighton |
$694K
|
| Camberwell |
$355K
|
Data sourcing: Pedestrian activity data current as of 2 April 2025. Source: City of Stonnington Pedestrian counters. Spend data current as of 20 April 2025 and is subject to revisions. Sourced from banking transaction data. Vacancy data current as of January 2025. Source: Vacancy Review, prepared by E3 valuations and commissioned by City of Stonnington.
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