Elliot said customer visits rose nearly 17 per cent on the same period the previous year and the mall owner expects nearly half a billion people to come to its centres this year.

“Our business partners have seen their sales growth accelerate in the third quarter compared to the first six months of this year,” he said.

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While the retail boss said shoppers will clearly be impacted by interest rates, he attributed growth in sales in categories like dining, entertainment and fashion - “effectively the experiential stuff” - to shoppers spending less on travel and home renovations.

“We compete very well in times where consumers are being more deliberate about where they spend their money,” Elliot said. “The cost of an airline ticket is so expensive, it’s become almost prohibitive.”

“If they spend less on a house or they spend less on a renovation, we weather that very well because they do spend money on the entertainment, the services, the food and fashion we provide,” he said.

The company has completed 2464 lease deals so far this year, with about 1547 of them to tenants who renewed and another 917 to new merchants. More than 200 new brands took space in the landlord’s malls.

Morgan Stanley analysts Simon Chan and Lauren Berry said the “business seems to be heading in the right direction in this post COVID rebound.”

Commercial agency Colliers’ latest Australian Retail Snapshot says rents and incentives were flat across all retail assets during the September quarter. “Future rental growth prospects will be dependent on the impact of rising interest rates on consumer demand for consumption,” Colliers said.

Footfall nationally is around 85-90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, it said.

Scentre said it expects funds from operations to be greater than 19¢ per security for 2022 with distributions of at least 15¢ per security. Shares in the company are trading around $2.90, down from their pre-pandemic level of around $4.

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