Behind the Victorian facades and tree-lined streets of one of Melbourne's most affluent suburbs, something has shifted. A shopping strip that once defined suburban retail is emptying out, one storefront at a time. Locals say they barely recognise their neighbourhood anymore.
Suburban shopping strips in Melbourne are becoming emptier as landlords refuse to cut advertised rents. Even on the once premier retail strip of Chapel Street, one in five shops sit empty, and one shop in South Yarra has had the shutters up for nine months.
But the story is not simply about commercial landlords holding out for premium prices. Residents and business owners say antisocial behaviour and crime have made the strip an increasingly hostile place to work, shop, or spend time. Retail theft remains at record levels, with aggression towards retail staff and other antisocial behaviour at shopping centres an issue. The problem is not isolated to one location; there were 41,547 retail theft offences last year, an increase of 2,393 offences or 6.1%.
The scale of the challenge runs deeper than headline crime figures suggest. Retail crime continues to accelerate, with total retail offences up 11.2 per cent year-on-year, including a 13.5 per cent increase in theft to more than 60,000 incidents and a 14.8 per cent rise in assaults. That data covers Victoria broadly, but some of the largest increases in crime have been in Melbourne's wealthier suburbs, the historical heartland of the opposition Liberal Party.
Victoria Police has mobilised in response. In December, Victoria Police launched a major operation deploying officers and PSOs to Melbourne's biggest shopping centres, following rising shop theft, anti-social behaviour, and aggression towards retailers. As part of Operation Pulse, police have arrested almost 710 people and laid over 1,450 charges for crimes committed at Eastland, Fountain Gate, Highpoint, Northland, Bayside, Werribee, Southland or Watergardens.
Yet security experts and business advocates argue that tactical police operations, while welcome, are not enough. The Australian Retailers Association calls on the Victorian Government to establish a dedicated retail crime taskforce, similar to those operating in New South Wales and South Australia, and to implement Workplace Protection Orders so repeat offenders can be stopped before they re-enter stores.
The decline of these shopping strips raises broader questions about Victoria's approach to criminal justice. Crime rates have been rising in the aftermath of the pandemic. The increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and the impact of inflation have effectively reduced the net worth of the average person. For households earning incomes below the national average of $1,975 per week, this has increased the day-to-day financial pressures for a significant percentage of the Melbourne population. Combine this with the pressures of an increasing population by 1.9% in the previous quarter, slow economic growth and rising unemployment and underemployment rates, with all of these factors known to naturally increase crime rates.
Community-minded observers note a troubling paradox: affording a shopfront in these premium locations has always been expensive, yet crime and antisocial behaviour now deter both customers and retailers. Some landlords gamble on conditions improving rather than reduce rents to attract new tenants, creating the visual reality of decay that further erodes confidence in the area. For residents who remember these strips as gathering places and economic anchors, the frustration is palpable. Reclaiming them will require both sustained enforcement and acknowledgement that no amount of policing alone can restore neighbourhoods without addressing the underlying conditions that drive crime.