As we step into 2026, the retail landscape feels steadier than it has in years. While the uncertainty of the past decade hasn’t entirely disappeared, something else has emerged – momentum.
The final months of 2025 set the tone, with trading for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas painting a clear picture: customers are willing to spend where value is meaningful, clarity is high, and everyday life is supported. The Stockland portfolio, with a heavy weighting to essentials-based centres, once again proved its strength, with fresh food, convenience and services forming the backbone of consistent performance.
In terms of headwinds, interest-rate expectations continue to shift, and even the anticipation of change can create ripples in consumer confidence. A few basis points can influence sentiment – and sentiment in retail is powerful.
As we look ahead, we are mindful of these signals while remaining confident that our strategy, grounded in essentials and community need, is built for resilience.
Community safety in focus
It’s important to call out community safety as a critical issue, with Australians thinking differently about public spaces in the wake of tragic attacks. As owners and managers of places where everyone comes together – families, young people, seniors, culturally diverse communities – our centres feel the weight of that responsibility.
We’ve seen moments when this heightened awareness about safety has changed visitation patterns. Like others across the sector, we are working closely with industry groups, authorities, partners, and our teams to ensure customers feel comfortable, supported, and secure.
But safety is not just about policing or protocol; it is deeply connected to belonging. A town centre that feels like part of the community generates its own sense of security through activity, passive surveillance, and simple familiarity. To reinforce this, we are strengthening how we understand local needs and aligning our social impact aspirations with what really matters to each community. The work is ongoing, but the intent is clear: the more connected people feel, the more comfortable they are.
A strategy grounded in growth and purpose
Our town-centre strategy continues to be linked to our Residential Communities business, where population growth and shifting demographics drive real, tangible need for retail and services.
Our centres play a crucial role in providing our communities with access to essential amenities – bringing supermarkets, fresh food offerings, medical services, childcare, and everyday essentials to customers who often currently travel well beyond their neighbourhoods to access them. This is not a discretionary model; it’s a needs‑based one, which is resilient through economic cycles.
As our centres are part of the community’s masterplan, we consider how people will walk, move, and live around our centres. We design them to sit at the heart of each growing neighbourhood, and we think about how they will evolve over time. This alignment between residential, community and retail, all within a long‑term view of place, is a defining strength of the Stockland model.
2026: A year when plans become places
It’s not every year that you get to celebrate opening a brand-new centre.
Following last year’s opening of Stockland Gables in Sydney, this year we will open two new town centres, in Providence in Queensland’s Ripley Valley and Sienna Wood in Perth’s south‑east. These centres have been designed with the needs of their communities front of mind – they provide essential retail, dining, childcare, medical services, and everyday convenience for fast‑growing regions.
The centres are in the hearts of their communities, surrounded by other essential community infrastructure. For example, Stockland Gables is next to Santa Sophia Catholic College, across from the new sports fields, and close to the Aspect Hills Shire School and a future K-6 public school. Similarly, the town centre at Providence is in a hub that includes the Ripley Satellite Hospital, Ripley Valley State Secondary College, Ripley Valley State School, and parks.
Starting construction this year is the first stage of the Aura Town Centre at Australia’s largest masterplanned community, Aura. At about 16,300sqm, the town centre will bring together fresh food, dining, and specialty retail, adjacent to Aura Parklands, a landmark leisure destination with a swimming lagoon and picnic areas.
Over time, the town centre will link seamlessly with future schools, healthcare, and public transport connections, including rail. Aura represents a long-term commitment and reflects our ambition and approach to community creation.
These three centres are just the beginning. Beyond 2026, our pipeline continues to grow, with future centres progressing through planning stages across our national portfolio.
Thoughtful portfolio evolution
Across our existing portfolio, we are using data and insights to enhance performance. Throughout 2025, our essential‑weighted assets continued to trade strongly, and in 2026 we will deepen our work to remix, reposition, and refine – ensuring each centre is aligned to what customers want today and will need tomorrow.
This is not about dramatic transformation. It is about thoughtful evolution by understanding the role each centre plays in its trade area, considering how retailers complement one another, and enhancing layouts, flow and amenities. It is about exploring targeted improvements and minor expansions to unlock value. And using insights to ensure the right offer meets the right customer at the right time.
Sustainability, integrated from the ground up
Sustainability remains fundamental to the design of our new town centres and the management of our existing ones. We are targeting high Green Star ratings across our development pipeline, supported by low‑carbon materials, efficient building systems and contemporary design that prioritises long‑term performance.
Initiatives such as Energy Bay solar, metering programs, and the rollout of EV fast charging – most recently at Stockland Merrylands – demonstrate how we are embedding environmental responsibility across the portfolio.
Looking forward
I’ve now been at Stockland for just over 12 months. My first year was about getting under the hood of the business – understanding our people, our assets, our customers and communities, and our opportunities. It’s been an energising journey, shaped by purpose, grounded in values, and made possible through partnerships across the business.
What excites me now is the next chapter: delivering our new town centres, optimising our existing ones, and continuing to strengthen the relationships with retailers and partners that underpin our success.
This year also marks a symbolic shift for our portfolio. We are now growing again – from 16 town centres to 19 by the end of the financial year. It’s a turning point that reflects our confidence in our strategy, our pipeline, and the communities we serve.
Our ambition for 2026 is clear: Deliver with purpose, partner with intent, and create places that genuinely serve the people who rely on them. Through our essentials‑based strategy, our alignment with masterplanned communities and our long‑term commitment to the places we build, we are confident in the year ahead.
Momentum is building, and we look forward to shaping it alongside our retailers, partners and communities.
- This article by Marco Ettorre, Executive General Manager, Town Centres, Stockland was first published in SCN magazine – Big Guns 2026 edition
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