Newmarket's economy post-COVID is performing exceptionally well and shows no signs of slowing down with exciting luxury brands arriving in the very near future. Mark Knoff-Thomas gives an overview of spend in Newmarket across sectors.

As we continue to navigate our way through our COVID world, we’ve become more accustomed to disruption and change. On one hand our collective resilience has been bolstered, but on the other, there is still a lingering sense of uncertainty. The economic fall out from 2020 will be felt for a while to come as the country gets back on its feet. However, despite the lockdowns over the the past 12 months, the Newmarket economy, at a macro level, is performing exceptionally well. In fact we’re on track for our most successful year in the precinct’s modern history. For the 12 month period to April 2021 we were up 23.1%, which is no great surprise considering 2020 was a bit dire. But we’re on track by end of June to blast through $700 million, our previous high was $622 million back in 2016. And the forecasted trend has us knocking on a billion dollars within the next 12-18 months.

At various times over the years Newmarket has been a night time hot spot, and it's good to see it's back on peoples’ radars as a place of first choice when deciding to go out for dinner or a drink. We have over 120 cafes, bars and restaurants and our night time economy is growing quickly. Our hospitality sector has actually increased and now sits at around $106 million per year, and makes up 15.3% of our total income. However, home & recreation is our largest category with spend at around $251 million and makes up 36% of our income. And as you’d expect our apparel & personal category is pretty huge at $168 million or 24.1% of income.

We’ve all heard stories of some of the startling trends that emerged last year – luxury car sales having record months, or massive splurges of pent- up-demand after lockdowns. But actually consumer demand has remained very strong well into 2021. There are some ongoing supply issues and you may notice that delivery timeframes can now be months, not just weeks. It will be some time before those problems are resolved.

In other positive news, shortly there will be a number of announcements about the multitude
of luxury brands who are set to have a new home at Westfield Newmarket. The entire ground floor of the old 277 will be a luxury precinct, unlike anything ever seen in New Zealand. Fit outs are well underway. Out on the strip and in Teed, Osborne and Kent Street we have more new brands moving in, plus the resurgence of Broadway is underway.

To keep up to speed with announcements, keep an eye on newmarket.co.nz.

See you here soon,

Mark Knoff-Thomas
CEO, Newmarket Business Association