Oxford Street, in Sydney’s Paddington, is in many ways a typical strip retail location. It’s a destination development drawing a lot of foot traffic, and has a heavy reliance on the clothing and soft-good sectors.

According to Ray White’s latest “Between the Lines” report, the local strip retail market has gone through an evolution over the past 10 years, and Oxford Street has been a part of that change.

Ray White Commercial Eastern Suburbs director Grant Whiteman said destination strips like Oxford Street have had to reposition.

“This is off the back of local development, e-commerce, demographics, and spending habits, which have all changed the way individuals interact with local shopping,” Whiteman said.

“While tenant mixes have seen some movement, rental rates and vacancies do continue to fluctuate. However, inquiry levels remain elevated for investment, with yields achievable in the 5 to 5.5 per cent range.”

Ray White’s head of research, Vanessa Rader, said Ray White Commercial Eastern Suburbs had surveyed the Oxford Street retail strip in January to determine tenancy mix and vacancies.

“Results have been encouraging, with vacancies of approximately 8.85 per cent recorded. Our last survey conducted in early 2015 saw vacancies at 11.81 per cent,” Rader said.

“Known as a fashion strip, this location also had a strong weighting towards furniture and homeware retailing to cater for the fashion-conscious home owner, however this has reduced over the last few years to just 2.46 per cent of the strip.

“While other retail locations favour food retailing, Oxford Street only represents 13.92 per cent of combined specialised food, cafe and restaurant retailing.

“While this may be below rates achieved in other locations, this has shown a swift upward movement since our last survey, where this accounted for less than 10 per cent of the total floorspace,” Rader said.