Shopping Malls Post Sales Growth Despite Rising Vacancy and Retail Slowdown in Q2 2025

SiiLA data highlights the strength of premium assets and the sector’s resilience, even amid regional contrasts and weaker retail consumption

Ciro Neto, CEO of Iguatemi, one of Brazil’s leading shopping mall owners and operators

By: SiiLA News

09/22/2025

The second quarter of 2025 brought mixed signals for Brazil’s shopping mall sector. According to data from SiiLA’s GROCS platform, which specializes in monitoring shopping centers, vacancy rates reached 8.87% in Class A malls, 7.07% in Class B, and 11.4% in Class C during the period.

Despite vacant space, particularly in popular malls, sales per square meter remained strong: BRL 3,802/m² in Class A malls, BRL 1,698/m² in Class B, and BRL 1,889/m² in Class C.

This performance underscores the resilience of premium malls, even in a challenging macroeconomic environment, while also showing that Class C malls, although more affected by vacancy, outperformed Class B in sales during the quarter.

IBGE data shows that Brazil’s unemployment rate fell from 7.0% in Q1 to 5.8% in Q2 2025, the lowest in years, indicating greater disposable income and potential for higher consumption in the months ahead. At the same time, IBGE’s Monthly Retail Trade Survey (PMC) recorded declines of -0.1% in June and -0.3% in July, both seasonally adjusted.

This suggests that while overall retail spending slowed, sales in physical shopping malls continued to grow.

Regional contrasts

Across regions, contrasts are evident. In São Paulo, Class C malls posted one of the country’s highest vacancy rates at 19.7%. In Rio de Janeiro, Class A malls reported the highest sales nationwide at BRL 5,026/m² but faced a high vacancy rate of 11.2%.

In the Northeast, premium malls showed weakness with a 16.5% vacancy rate for Class A, while the South region posted more balanced results, with BRL 3,558/m² in Class A sales and tighter vacancy levels.

With retail slowing and services still performing well, shopping malls in Q2 2025 faced cautious sentiment from tenants, though consumption in leisure and entertainment continued to sustain the sector.

However, the sharp decline in unemployment opens space for a recovery in the second half of the year, driven by higher disposable income and stronger consumer confidence.

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