Oct 1 (Reuters) - U.S. retail mall vacancies remained unchanged at 7.9 percent in the third quarter, while asking and effective rents for shopping centers rose by 0.4 percent, real estate research firm Reis Inc said.
The national vacancy rate for neighborhood and community shopping centers was unchanged at 10.3 percent during the third quarter, Reis said in a report on Thursday.
"Ecommerce remains a potent threat to many retail centers, but at this point, that is not what is holding the market back. The overwhelming majority of retail sales activity, roughly 94 percent, still occurs in physical retail locations," Ryan Severino, senior economist and associate director of research at Reis, said.
Construction activity remained limited with only 1,272,000 square feet of new shopping center space completed during the third quarter. This was one of the lowest quarterly figures since construction reached its trough in early 2011, Reis said.
"Given the necessity of pre-leasing, demand continues to move more or less in lockstep with construction. There remains little demand for existing inventory," Severino said.
Reis said with the labor market showing signs of growth, rent growth is likely to accelerate as more people get jobs and household income growth rate inceases.
(Reporting by Rohit T. K. in Bangalore)