High rents have been blamed for the increasing number of empty shops at two Williamstown shopping strips.
The shopping strips have featured in Fitzroys’ 2021 edition of Walk the Strip comparing vacancy rates across Melbourne.
Vacancies increased on average by 2.6 per cent across nearly 35 of Melbourne’s major shopping strips, from 7.7 per cent heading into COVID to 10.3 currently.
The vacancy rate in Ferguson Street more than doubled from 4.5 per cent in 2019 to 11.1 per cent this year. The vacancy rate was 4.4 per cent last year.
In Douglas Parade, the vacancy rate rose from 4.6 per cent in 2019 to 10.9 per cent last year and 9.8 per cent this year.