A "dramatic" increase in retail rents has allowed Sydney's Pitt Street Mall to maintain its position as the 7th most expensive shopping strip in the world, a new report has revealed.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Main Streets Across the World 2019 tracked rents for 448 locations across 68 markets – the largest number ever included since the annual research commenced in 1988 – ranking the locations by their prime rental value using Cushman & Wakefield’s proprietary data. 

According to the report, retail rents for Pitt Street Mall grew more than any other top 10 ranked global retail location, supported by strong demand from retailers for innovative flagship stores and growing store footprints among major cosmetics and luxury brands. 

Cushman & Wakefield National Director of Retail Leasing for Australia and New Zealand, Matt Hudson, said rents in Sydney’s retail core had reached new highs as retailers focused on evolving the customer experience and trialling new store formats to attract shoppers.

Source: Cushman and Wakefield

“Higher footfall areas around Pitt Street Mall are becoming more hotly contested with strong demand from high-end luxury and footwear retailers for flagship sites along George and King Streets," he said.

"As a result, we’ve seen rents almost double along George Street as it opens up for business following the completion of the light rail. This has also presented an opportunity for landlords to reposition their sites.”

"While there had been a stellar rise in rents along Pitt Street Mall, there were an increasing polarisation and rising pressure on incentives in many lower foot-traffic locations across Sydney.

Rankings for the Asia Pacific region shows Pitt Street was third most expensive behind Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and Tokyo’s Ginza district, with Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall maintaining its position as 7th in the APAC rankings at $7,000 per square metre.

Brisbane’s Queen Street has fallen one position to tenth most expensive in the APAC region, with retail rents averaging $4,500 per sqm.

Click here to download the full report.

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