SA retail rallying hard this week and mall REITs languishing. Disconnect opens up a pairs trade?

Reason for it possibly not closing the gap: REITs relied heavily on the mom and pop stores who’ve been heavily hurt this year and aren’t coming back. Was only ~20% of rent roll but with gearing that hurts them badly.

Mom and pops dying means more of the consumer wallet gets funnelled towards the surviving large listed retailers.

This will make for interesting rental negotiations. Will (rent/sales) remain constant, or drop due to weaker REIT negotiation power due to the vacancies?

We’ll soon see if REITs and retailers are aligned/adversarial. Does Woolies want to pressure the REIT for lower rents if it would result in a more derelict mall as REITs withhold capex?

Would it affect the overall Woolies shopping experience? Might not be worth the margin uplift