Shopping for a new apartment could soon be combined with a trip to pick up the weekly groceries if shopping centre owner Scentre Group pursues plans to build on top of its existing centres. Scentre Group owns and manages 42 Westfield shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand.

Chief executive Elliott Rusanow says it is considering redeveloping its properties to incorporate residential apartments above them. This will ensure the company’s long-term growth and help ease housing supply issues. “Our Westfield destinations are located in and around existing civic and transport hubs – places where densification is already occurring,” he says. “These substantial land holdings, when combined with their strategic locations, have the potential to be part of addressing the housing supply issues in both countries.”

Associate director at the University of New South Wales City Futures Research Centre, Hal Pawson, says the airspace above shopping centres could provide an option for valuable housing stock.
“It’s far preferable to be doing it in sites like that than on the fringes of cities,” he says.