Australian property firm Stockland has reported a 0.1 per cent fall in apparel sales across its town centres for the first quarter of FY25 compared to the same quarter last year.
The fashion category also reported a 3 per cent drop in quarter-on-quarter moving annual turnover (MAT), hitting $378 million in the latest quarter.
The discretionary slump also hit homewares, with a 3.2 per cent fall quarter-on-quarter and a yearly 0.3 per cent fall.
Apparel is the largest specialty category across Stockland town centres, followed by food catering, food retail and retail services. These latter categories reported modest lifts both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
Despite the falls in apparel and homewares, the specialty sector MAT sales grew by 1.5 per cent from the last quarter and 2.1 per cent from the same quarter last year.
Supermarkets, meanwhile, led the charge with a quarterly rise of 5.1 per cent.
Discount department stores and general department stores also grew in both quarterly sales and yearly sales, at 3.1 per cent 0.9 per cent respectively.
According to Stockland, total comparable MAT growth across all town centres was up 2.8 per cent, with comparable specialty sales hitting around $10,500 per square metre.
Stockland added that resilient sales were underpinned by more than 70 per cent exposure to essentials-based categories
“Discretionary categories continue to see slower sales, while essentials categories such as food retailing and catering have been more resilient and delivered positive sales growth,” the company shared in a recent trading update.