How have Perth’s high streets changed over a year of tracking?

Last December, we launched our Perth High Street Tracker monitoring the pulse of the city centre.

And it has been a busy year for the Fair City with the long-awaited opening of the Perth Museum in March and numerous changes on its high streets.

In the past year, we have conducted a census of the city centre and St John’s Shopping Centre four times to find exactly which businesses occupy, or don’t occupy, its units.

But how has Perth changed over the course of a year?

Our latest census found:

• The average vacancy rate in Perth increased slightly since 2023, but fell or remained at 0% for five out of nine tracked streets
• A charity moved into part of a unit that has been empty for almost seven years on George Street
• The vacancy rate of St John’s Shopping Centre fell over the year

We also dig deeper into why George Street appears to be thriving.

The picture one year on

The high street tracker maps out nine streets in Perth – High Street, George Street, St John Street, St John’s Place, South St John’s Place, King Edward Street, South Street, Scott Street (up to the junction with Victoria Street) and South Methven Place.

Overall, the average vacancy rate across these streets has increased slightly since we started tracking.

A total of 65 units are vacant across those streets, compared with 60 in December last year.

However, the streets where the rates rose tend to have less units. South St John’s Place, with the highest vacancy rate, has just six units and Hair by Laurie is the only occupied business.

Meanwhile, neighbouring King Edward Street has five units and with a single vacant property stands at a 20% vacancy rate.

The exception is Scott Street which has the fourth highest number of total units and fifth of it is now empty.

Meanwhile, at the centre of Perth’s “Café Quarter” is the fully occupied St John’s Place which didn’t see a single vacancy in the whole year.

High Street and South Street are now fourth and third most occupied streets respectively.

While South Methven Street’s vacancy rate fell, it has remained the second most vacant in Perth.

George Street has fallen to its lowest vacancy rate since we started tracking at 7.7%.

The thriving: Café Quarter and George Street

After the closure of the Body Shop took away King Edward Street’s 100% occupancy, George Street became second best for occupancy.

St John’s Place kept its completely full status all year, but the two most filled Perth streets offer differing experiences.

The other two vacant units on George Street have only been empty since this year.

George Street has more than four times the number of units as St John’s Place, yet the latter still has more restaurants than the longer street.

St John’s Place eight restaurants make up 88.9% of its composition.

While shopping dominates on George Street, it still offers more variety. George Street has a unit representing all of our main categories apart from gambling.

In addition to those charted, its unit categories include entertainment, banking, offices, and health and well being.

But from the Spotty Tiger near the Perth Concert Hall to the Wee Rebel Barber at the opposite end of George Street, variety definitely keeps shoppers busy on the street.

Specialists in their trade

One of the many different types of shops, The Bean Shop has been selling their freshly ground coffee on George Street since 2003.

Lorna Bruce, who started the business with her husband John, said they had been originally hoping for a bigger location but found the little shop to be “a bit of a blessing”.

“Rather than trying to do too much, we have become really focused on just selling coffee and everything to do with coffee,” she said.

“I think that is one of the things about George Street – we are all specialists.

“You have got a really beautiful florist, a bridal specialist, an artisan baker or a really nice delicatessen.

“There are all of these shops that specialise in one thing and are really good at what they do.”

She emphasised the expertise of fellow George Street business owners as a key selling point, including one of the longest term occupiers – antique and gift shop Whispers of the Past.

“I can’t even remember how many years they have been there but I think it is a testament to the street that a business that really specialises in gifts and antiques can survive.

“And each of these businesses, have such loyal followings whether they are five years old or twenty-five years old.”

The businesses in the street share a neighbourly attitude and often “try and help each other out”, but she emphasises that isn’t just felt in George Street.

Lorna added: “I think that is the thing about Perth. Because it is smaller than some of the other cities, it has that more friendly community feel and I think we all benefit from that.”

Still a place for shopping

Crucially, streets in Perth still very much have a space for shopping.

“I do feel George Street is the right street for us, especially as a more foody business,” Lorna said.

“We have got the deli and the bakers and on a Saturday morning you will see people coming in for their coffee or lovely eggs.

“There is that really nice almost old-fashioned thing where you used to go to the bakers and the butchers and get your shopping. I think there is more and more a place for that in cities.”

She added: “I think people are also really aware now that if you spend your money locally it stays in the community.”

And that shows as retail is still the top category in the Fair City.

In fact, it has risen slightly since March from 37.2% of occupied units to 37.75%.

Food and drink is the next top category, followed by hair and beauty.

Unsurprisingly, St John’s Place has the highest proportion of food and drink units. South Street was the second most popular food and drink street.

Overall, the composition of the occupied units on Perth high streets has not changed much.

There have been slight increases in the shopping, food and drink, hair and beauty, and banking categories.

On the other hand, the proportion of services, health and wellbeing, entertainment and offices dropped marginally.

What about St John’s Shopping Centre

We started by monitoring 36 spaces within St John’s Shopping Centre. That included a pop-up space in the middle of the centre.

However, to provide a better sense of the vacancy rate for units we have decided to remove it and reduce the units to 35.

That means with Calendar Club back again filling a unit, the vacancy rate of the centre has fallen to 14.3%.

Other temporary occupants like the Coo Trail Hub also saw changes in the centre.

But there was one new permanent resident joining this year with Bodycare.

Shopping makes up for 86.7% of St John’s Shopping Centre.

What’s new?

But what has changed since our last census in July?

The below chart shows the newly occupied units and those that have become vacant.

Yet some like Vision PK appear twice as they vacated a property on High Street to move to George Street.

A total of 11 units have become vacant, including the Visit Scotland Perth iCentre.

However, during our census there appeared to be signs of development within the unit – so could there be a new occupant on the horizon?

Ice Cloud shuts over the colder months and many other vacancy are the results of relocations.

On the other hand, businesses filled more units than they vacated with 16 newly occupied premises over the past few months.

Additionally, the Perth Distillery Co opened a new more prominent location on George Street.

Smash Bros has started operating from a takeaway hatch in the Highlander unit in under a month from the café shutting.

Help us track Perth’s high streets

We manually collect all of the data in the Perth high street tracker based on The Courier reporting and quarterly censuses.

The Perth tracker reflects regular updates on openings and closures that are featured in our articles or observed by reporters.

But we may not always be able to find the precise details. For example, the last open dates may be estimates based on the best available information.

And we might not always spot a change immediately or estimate a closure date perfectly.

So we appreciate the contributions of readers who have used our form to alert us to changes so far.

We would love it if you use the form below to alert us to changes or provide more accurate information where you notice discrepancies.

Use the form below to get in touch.