The world's most expensive shopping districts
Most Canadians don’t need an extra reason to hate Toronto.
In the majority’s eye – as discussed before – the traffic sucks, the streets are dirty and there’s so much crime the city might as well be post-Katrina New Orleans, 24/7. This is nothing fresh.
But a new study gives the country’s elitist hub another reason to dwell on its hoity-toityness, and it could be enough to send plenty of Canucks over the edge.
Toronto’s Bloor St., which houses privileged outlets like Hermes and Prada, once again came in first as the country’s most expensive street for retailers.
According to real estate advisor Cushman & Wakefield, it costs an average of $300 USD per square foot to set up shop along Bloor, the street that stretches through the heart of the city.
Vancouver’s Robson St. ($210 / square foot) and Saint-Catherine W in Montreal ($110 / square foot) rounded out the list’s Canadian top three.
Yet while that $300 figure might seem daunting, it’s really just pennies on the global scale.
Toronto placed 21st on the Cushman & Wakefield list, relative light years behind the world’s most posh shopping districts.
Paris’ Avenue des Champs Elysees ranked third most expensive for retailers at $1,009 per square foot, just behind Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay at $1,525 per square foot.
The granddaddy of them all? New York’s Fifth Avenue, which costs retailers a ridiculous $1,700 per square foot, a figure that – while outrageous – is actually down 8 per cent from last year.
In fact, retail rents all over the world are tumbling (54% of the top locales reported a drop) from last year, though none more than Mumbai’s prestigious Colaba Causeway, which fell 63.5%.
“The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector with consumer spending and retail sales down in many markets,” said John Strachan, Cushman & Wakefield’s global head of retail.
“There will undoubtedly be some markets which will continue to be affected (by the recession) over the next year, but we expect to see a greater number move back into positive territory.”
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Dave | Sep 23, 2021 9:18:45 AM
The relative price point of the square footage retail space does not provide any context for the true economic value that it may represent. Consider that a vendor license for this year with territorial rights to sell hot dogs in front of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art was worth $362,201 to one tube steak salesman ( http://www.slate.com/id/2224941/).
Posted by: Daniel L | Sep 23, 2021 12:32:41 PM
Is it really necessary to open an article about global retail set-up costs by bashing Toronto with respect to traffic, crime and cleanliness? Why must you insist that the rest of the country hates Ontario's capital (and the most populous city in the nation)? If this is true, why do so many tourists flock here day after day? Why do so many people live here if it is so hated? Is it because Toronto offers so much diversity and attraction that you cannot get in the rest of the country? Does Toronto not welcome you to shop the stores on Bloor? I ask you to please seek another approach to your writing because taking irrelevant stabs at a part of your own country really has nothing to do with the overall article. So why do it at all?
Posted by: L | Sep 25, 2021 9:02:58 AM
Well, it appears that the writer does not like Toronto, and everyone in a democractic country (such as Canada supposedly is), has a right to their opinion.
I DO tend to dislike Toronto myself. I agree it is dirty, crowded and outrageously priced. Plus, I would say there are many other problems. However, I think the writer could be looking at this from a personal perspective. There's my guess for the day.
However, I have also been to New York City and Paris and it appears to me that the bigger the city, the bigger the problems.
I DO think that it is ridiculous that a value is put on square footage. However, isn't that the way things have been for years now??
I believe it's a well-written article, on the whole.
Posted by: Nashat | Sep 25, 2021 1:05:18 PM
Toronto may be a bit expensive but in my World tour I never saw any place as good as Toronto for shopping.