How to read a shopping centre casual leasing rate card

A casual leasing rate card looks simple: a site, a period and a price. But two quotes for "a week in December" can be nearly $2,000 apart before you've changed a single thing about your activation, as the comparison below shows. The difference often sits in four places: the period the rate covers, the site grade, the seasonal loading and whether GST is in or out.

Here's how to read a rate card and line two quotes up like for like. The examples come from rate cards and leasing guides that centre owners and operators publish on their own websites, checked on 4 October 2026. Rates change, so use these to understand the structure, not as today's prices, and ask each centre for its current card.

#1 - Check what period the rate covers

Many cards quote both a daily and a weekly rate, and on these three the weekly rate works out cheaper per day:

• Mount Sheridan Plaza (June 2025): a standard site is $200 a day or $800 a week, ex GST, so four days at the daily rate ($200 x 4 = $800) cost as much as a week. It also sells three-day rates and a four-day rate (Thursday to Sunday, $500).
• Unley Shopping Centre (PDF saved June 2020): its Woolworths site is $500 a day or $1,100 a week, plus GST, so a week costs less than three days.
• Channel Court Shopping Centre (prices correct as at July 2024): $200 a day or $750 a week, ex GST.

Check what "a week" means. Harbour Town Adelaide's brochure (PDF saved January 2024) prices a week as seven days, while Mount Sheridan's weekly rate covers Monday to Saturday or Monday to Sunday. Before you book several days at the daily rate, ask whether a multi-day or weekly rate is cheaper.

#2 - Check which site you're being quoted

The same centre can have very different prices for different sites:

• Centre court or prime site. Lendlease's national pop-up rate card (PDF saved May 2025) quotes Erina Fair at $2,900 a week for the centre court and $2,200 for a prime site, ex GST.
• Site grade. Harbour Town Adelaide charges $1,400 a week for an A grade site and $990 for a B grade site, including GST.
• Power. At Mount Sheridan Plaza a powered site is $225 a day against $200 for a standard one. At Majura Park (rate sheet saved March 2025) the powered sites are $1,500 a week and the unpowered ones $1,350, GST inclusive.
• Size. Mount Sheridan's standard site is 3 m x 2 m, and larger sites incur a double site fee.

Ask for the site plan with the quote, so you know exactly where the site is and what's around it. Our guide to how much space a shopping centre activation needs helps you check the footprint before you book.

#3 - Check whether roaming is priced separately

A site doesn't give you the right to roam. Lendlease's rate card lists roaming as its own line, priced per 4 hours: $800 at Erina Fair and Tweed City. If you plan to hand out samples away from the site, get it quoted as a separate item. Our guide to roaming teams and mascots in shopping centres covers the rules that come with it.

#4 - Find the seasonal loadings

Peak periods cost more, and the loading can sit on a separate line or a second page:

• Lendlease (2025): +25% in the January, April, July and September/October school holidays, +50% from 18 November to 1 December, and +100% from 2 to 29 December.
• Harbour Town Adelaide: a 50% loading in November and January, 100% in December and 25% on public holidays.
• Majura Park: 10% in Easter week, 5% from 7 to 20 November and 10% from 21 November to 24 December.

Across these three cards, a loading runs from 5% to double the base rate. On Lendlease's card, Erina Fair's $2,200 prime site becomes $2,750 a week in the school holidays ($2,200 + 25%), $3,300 in late November ($2,200 + 50%) and $4,400 in December ($2,200 + 100%). Ask which school holiday dates the centre is using.

#5 - Check whether GST is in or out

Rate cards don't agree on this. Lendlease, Mount Sheridan Plaza and Channel Court quote ex GST, and Sydney Airport's pop-up site cards say "All rates exclude GST" (see our guide to airport activations). Harbour Town Adelaide and Majura Park quote GST inclusive.

GST is 10% on most goods and services, according to the Australian Taxation Office. To compare like for like, convert everything to ex GST: divide a GST-inclusive price by 1.1. Harbour Town Adelaide's $1,400 A grade week is $1,272.73 ex GST ($1,400 divided by 1.1).

#6 - Read the extras and the conditions

The rate is for the floor space. Look for what's added on, and what happens if plans change:

• Outgoings. Lendlease's rates exclude "$5 DAILY OUTGOINGS", which adds $35 if they're charged for all seven days of a week ($5 x 7).
• Equipment. Some centres supply it: Harbour Town Adelaide offers complimentary marquees, tables and chairs on its seven 3 m x 3 m sites. Others charge, such as Mount Sheridan Plaza's $5 for a table on a daily booking, or provide nothing at all, as at Unley.
• Storage. The Cannon Hill Kmart Plaza guidelines say storage, where a centre has it, incurs additional costs.
• Percentage rent. Sydney Airport's site cards say "Percentage Rent may apply", so ask whether any part of the fee depends on your sales.
• Changes and cancellations. Dalby Shoppingworld charges $50 to change a confirmed booking. Majura Park's online terms give no refund for cancellations within 14 days of the booking date, and Harbour Town Adelaide gives no refunds once a booking is invoiced, though it lets you transfer the booking to another time within 12 months (on a similar site, and not into December or January).

#7 - Line the quotes up

Put each quote into the same columns and work everything back to ex GST. Here are two December weeks from the cards above:

Add your own quotes as extra rows, with the dates, the site plan and the conditions alongside. Compare the site sizes too: a cheaper week on a smaller site isn't a like-for-like saving.

Remember the display is a separate budget

The rate card covers the space only. Your display, its graphics, freight and installation come on top. As one example, our shopping centre pop-up display starts at $1,765 ex GST for a 1.5 m wide x 1.5 m high straight frame with double-sided graphics, hardware and a carry bag, before freight. Our shopping centre packages can be hired or bought, and our installation and pack-down team works with all the major centres.

To find the right person for a current rate card, use our shopping centre managers directory. Once your site is booked, call us on 1300 240 250 with the centre, the dates and the site size for a display quote.