Summary
Victoria Street has one realistic chance left to turn around, and it is this one. If the Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan is not funded and delivered in full over the next two years, the conditions that make recovery possible will not line up again.
About one fifth of the street's shopfront floor space is empty. Colliers put shopfront floorspace vacancy at 22% in April 2026. VSBA's own count on 15 October 2026 found 35 vacant shops out of 215, with 11 advertised for lease that day. Traders have warned that once vacancy reaches the 30s, a strip is in serious trouble.
For the first time, every piece needed for recovery is on the table at once:
- A plan: Yarra City Council adopted the Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan on 11 August 2026, with implementation starting in 2026/27.
- A reason to invest: the State's Plan for Victoria targets 44,000 new homes in Yarra by 2051, and Victoria Street is an activity centre earmarked for change.
- A cultural moment: the Plan marks the 50th anniversary of Vietnamese migration to Australia with a public art project.
- A trader base still standing: 180 businesses are still trading, including family businesses.
Each of these is time-limited. Developers will build elsewhere if planning certainty does not arrive. Long-standing traders cannot carry losses indefinitely. The anniversary will pass. A plan that stalls in its first two years loses the trust of the people it depends on.
VSBA asks the Victorian Government and Yarra City Council to:
- Fund the Plan in full and publish the budget, including the State advocacy items the Plan names.
- Establish the State-led Victoria Street Precinct Revitalisation Board within 12 months, with traders at the table.
- Deliver a visible safety and amenity lift in the first 12 months: lighting, CCTV, cleaning and a coordinated policing and outreach presence.
- Start the vacant shop program now, with a public target to cut vacant shops on the street.
- Publish the baseline measures and report quarterly, so everyone can see whether the Plan is working.
The street today
About one in five shopfronts on Victoria Street is empty, on both the Colliers and VSBA measures.
Measure | Result | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
Shopfront floor space vacant | 22% | Colliers Context Analysis Report, April 2026 |
Shops vacant | 22.4% | Colliers, as reported by ABC News, 2 January 2026 |
Vacant shops counted by VSBA | 35 of 215 (16%) | VSBA trader database, 15 October 2026 |
Shops advertised for lease | 11 | commercialrealestate.com.au, 15 October 2026 |
The VSBA count is lower because it counts every tenancy, including upstairs offices and each tenant inside The Hive. Several large sites are empty, including 66, 210–212, 306–308 and 513–519 Victoria Street, each between 400 m² and 800 m².
The street's character has thinned. In its peak years, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Victoria Street had around 30 Vietnamese restaurants. Today it still has a strong core of Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Korean food, grocers, butchers and bakeries. Colliers describes a retail offer geared to food, liquor and groceries, and notes a cluster of vacancies on the north side between Regent Street and Hoddle Street.
Traders name the same problems again and again:
- Safety and perception of safety, particularly around Victoria and Lennox streets.
- Graffiti, roller shutters and tired facades, which make the street look closed even when shops are open.
- Quiet evenings, with fewer reasons to visit after dark.
- Planning uncertainty and fragmented ownership, which hold back investment in the buildings themselves.
How we got here
Victoria Street has been planned for, consulted on and upgraded for more than a decade, and vacancy has still reached 22%. Past efforts improved parts of the street but were never large enough, joined up enough or sustained enough to change its direction.
When | What happened |
|---|---|
11 August 2026 | Council adopts the Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan, with amendments, after consultation from 14 May to early June 2026 |
April 2026 | Colliers Context Analysis Report finds 22% shopfront floorspace vacancy |
2025/26 | Council allocates $900,000 to revitalisation; the State provides $250,000 (ABC News) |
April 2025 | Council resolves to prepare a revitalisation plan |
By 2024 | North Richmond works: Lennox/Nicholson intersection upgrade, paving, seating, bins and landscaping, funded by Council and the State's Community Crime Prevention Program |
2018 | The Medically Supervised Injecting Room opens as a trial in North Richmond |
February–March 2017 | Victoria Street consultation: about 400 people contribute more than 2,300 ideas |
15 September 2015 | Council adopts the Victoria Street Streetscape Masterplan, Hoddle Street to the Yarra River |
Three lessons stand out:
- Streetscape alone does not fill shops. New paving and seating were welcome, but they did not address safety, planning or the business mix.
- Small, one-off funding does not change a 1.6 km strip. Short grants deliver short projects, and the gains fade when the money stops.
- No single agency owned the outcome. Safety sits with Victoria Police and the State, planning with Council and the Minister, and health services with the State. Without one table where these meet, the street fell between them.
The 2015 Masterplan noted that "a significant number" of shops sat behind steel roller shutters from 5.30 pm to 9.30 am. More than ten years later, the Plan is still proposing a roller door removal trial.
Why now
Five conditions have lined up in 2026 that have never lined up before, and none of them will last.
Condition | Why it matters | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
An adopted plan | Council adopted the Revitalisation Plan on 11 August 2026, with five priorities, a dedicated project team and measures of success | Two years to show results before support and attention move on |
A State housing target | The Plan for Victoria targets 44,000 new homes in Yarra by 2051, and the precinct is identified for transformational change | Developers will choose other centres if planning certainty and incentives do not arrive soon |
Concrete development tools | Planning Scheme Amendment C291yara, the Consolidate to Activate pilot, 3D modelling and a requested land tax waiver for the first three large developments (totaling 250+ dwellings) | Only the first movers are offered the incentive |
A cultural milestone | The Plan includes a public art project for the 50th anniversary of Vietnamese migration to Australia | The anniversary is a one-off moment to reclaim the street's story |
A trader base still standing | 180+ businesses still trade. VSBA delivers the Lunar Festival and launches the Clocktower Community Market in November 2026 | Every closure removes a business that may not come back |
The Plan also contains the ideas traders have asked for over many years:
- Safety: CPTED lighting, CCTV registration, syringe collection, graffiti removal and a coordinated crime prevention response.
- Business support: a Business Concierge, a planner for business permits, a facade program and a vacant shop program with incentives for long-term vacancies.
- Activity: outdoor dining trials in side streets, a pocket park at Jonas Street and a marketing strategy for the street.
- Culture: in-kind support for the Lunar New Year Festival and a place identity study.
- Governance: a State-led Precinct Revitalisation Board with Department Secretary-level representation.
The ideas are no longer the problem. Delivery, funding and the State's part are.
Why never, if not now
If this Plan stalls, Victoria Street does not stay where it is. It slides, and each step down makes the next recovery harder and more expensive.
Vacancy feeds on itself. Empty shops mean fewer visitors, which means less trade for the shops that remain. VSBA traders have warned that once vacancy reaches the 30s, a strip is "in a lot of trouble". At 22%, Victoria Street is closer to that line than to a healthy strip. We lost 10 shops in a fire bombing.
The street's identity is at risk. Victoria Street is Melbourne's best-known Vietnamese precinct, and many of the families who built it have moved to outer suburbs. If the remaining traders close, the cultural reason to visit goes with them. Rebuilding a cultural precinct from nothing is far harder than supporting one that still exists.
Investors will go elsewhere. The housing target will be met somewhere. If Victoria Street cannot offer planning certainty, consolidated sites and a safe ground floor, development will go to other activity centres. The chance to bring thousands of new residents, and their spending, to the street will pass.
Trust will run out. Traders, residents and property owners have taken part in consultations since at least 2015. Another plan that is adopted but not delivered will make the next one much harder to support. With current tax increases and cost of living pressures, our traders may not survive in the next two years.
What must happen
VSBA asks for the Plan to be delivered in full, on time and with the State as a full partner. Each ask below has an owner and a deadline so progress can be checked.
Victorian Government
Ask | Deadline |
|---|---|
Establish the Victoria Street Precinct Revitalisation Board, with Department Secretary-level members and a VSBA seat | By August 2027 |
Approve Planning Scheme Amendment C291yara, or an equivalent, to give owners and developers certainty | By June 2027 |
Confirm the land tax waiver for the first three major developments to break ground (250+ dwellings), and the consolidation incentives | By June 2027 |
Fund a visible safety presence: the Public Safety Officer trial, a temporary Victoria Police hub and CCTV | From 2027 |
Respond to the Plan's request on the MSIR's location, and expand drug treatment and recovery services | By June 2027 |
Fund the business case for the North Richmond Community Services Hub | 2027/28 Budget |
Upgrade North Richmond Station for safety and accessibility | 2027/28 Budget |
Provide ongoing multi-year funding for the Victoria Street Lunar Festival | From the 2027 Festival onwards |
Yarra City Council
Ask | Deadline |
|---|---|
Publish the Plan's budget and the baseline measures (due in Q1 2026/27) | By December 2026 |
Start the vacant shop program and long-term vacancy incentives, starting with the 11 shops now advertised for lease | By March 2027 |
Deliver the first lighting, graffiti removal, greening and cleaning upgrades | By June 2027 |
Launch the facade program and the roller door removal trial | By June 2027 |
Open the Business Concierge and the dedicated planner for business permits | By March 2027 |
Run the outdoor dining trial in side streets | Summer 2027–28 |
Publish quarterly community reports with vacancy, safety and spending figures | Every quarter |
What VSBA will do
- Share the VSBA trader database (215 shops, updated October 2026) to build the vacancy baseline and track change.
- Connect landlords of vacant shops with the vacant shop program.
- Deliver the Lunar Festival, the Moon Lantern Festival and the Clocktower Community Market as regular reasons to visit.
- Take part in the Revitalisation Board and the Council working group.
- Report back to traders every quarter in English and Vietnamese.
Measuring success
The Plan will be judged at its two-year review, around 2028. VSBA proposes these public targets so that everyone knows what success looks like.
Measure | Baseline | Proposed target by mid-2028 |
|---|---|---|
Shopfront floorspace vacancy (Colliers method) | 22% (April 2026) | Below 15% |
Vacant shops (VSBA count) | 35 of 215 (October 2026) | Fewer than 20 |
Shops advertised for lease | 11 (15 October 2026) | Tracked quarterly |
Businesses trading after dark | Council baseline due Q1 2026/27 | A measurable increase on the baseline |
Perceived safety, day and night | Council survey baseline due Q1 2026/27 | A measurable increase on the baseline |
Development planning permits (number and value) | Council baseline due Q1 2026/27 | First major consolidated development approved |
Visitors to Lunar Festival and VSBA events | VSBA event records | Growth year on year |
If the targets are missed at the two-year review, the Board and Council should reset funding and actions rather than wait for the end of the Plan.
Sources and data notes
- Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan – Your Say Yarra: consultation dates and adoption on 11 August 2026.
- Draft Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan, May 2026: priorities, actions and State advocacy items. The Plan was adopted with amendments, so check details against the final version.
- Colliers, Victoria Street Revitalisation Plan – Context Analysis Report, April 2026: 22% shopfront floorspace vacancy.
- ABC News, 2 January 2026: 22.4% vacancy, 2025/26 funding, trader and Mayor comments.
- Victoria Street Streetscape Masterplan, adopted 15 September 2015.
- Victoria Street consultation, 2017.
- Economic development in North Richmond.
- Yarra City Council – Victoria Street: Council's annual ground-floor vacancy audit.
VSBA data: The VSBA trader database counted 215 shop records on Victoria Street on 15 October 2026, including upstairs offices and each tenant of The Hive. It shows 180 trading and 35 vacant. 27 businesses recorded as closed have no street address and are not counted. Proposed targets and deadlines in this paper are VSBA proposals, not commitments by Council or the State.
