Retail vacancy rates continue to fall post-Brexit
New figures have shown that vacancy rates continued to decline post-Brexit with all retail property types reporting an increase in occupancy in the third quarter of 2016 compared with the same period last year.
According to the latest data from Revo and the Local Data Company, UK shopping centres reported the largest drop in vacancy rates in the period with a 1.2% fall year-on-year, followed by retail parks and town centres where the vacancy rates declined by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively.
The best growth in occupancy was seen in the North East where vacancy fell by 2.6% in the third quarter. This follows the 2.1% drop reported for the region in the previous quarter.
Amongst shopping centres, the largest 30 and 50 centres led the way in terms of declining vacancy with respective falls of 0.7% and 0.5%.
Matthew Hopkinson, director of LDC, said: “The health of Britain’s shopping centres continues to improve with increased occupancy rates. In part this is a result of the rebalancing of many centres away from pure shopping to food, beverage and experience outlets.
“Shopping centres continue to evolve and increasingly become a focus for many towns, but only those who create the ‘destination’ label that comes with the right offer, experience and environment.”
The index also shows strong occupier growth for the South East and West Midlands which experienced 1.8% and 1.7% falls in vacancy respectively.
