If you think COVID-19 might have helped tip the retail sector power balance between tenants and landlords, then Vicinity Centres' chief executive Grant Kelley’s appearance at The Australian Financial Review Virtual Retail Summit on Thursday might make you think again.

The accepted wisdom was that having long put up with eternally rising rents – typically based on a set amount plus inflation – retailers would be able to leverage the combination of the sales hit forced on them by the pandemic and the surge in online shopping to press landlords for a better deal.