Vacancies in shopping centres, retail parks and town centres fall for fifth consecutive quarter
New figures have shown that vacancy rates across UK shopping centres, retail parks and town centres have fallen for the fifth consecutive quarter.
The data released by the British Council of Shopping Centres and Local Data Company reveals that the vacancy rate dropped by 1.6% in the second quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter. Larger shopping centres performed better than the overall average, with the top 50 and 100 UK shopping centres recording respective declines of 2.3% and 2.2%. Vacancy rates at the top 30 largest centres edged down 2%.
The number of vacancies also fell in UK retail parks and town centres with respective drops of 0.9% and 0.5%.
The data shows vacancy rates declined in all regions with centres in the East of England and North East seeing the largest falls, both at 2.1%. While England and Scotland were the best performing nations with respective 1.7% and 2.1% declines, there was a slight increase in Wales where a 0.3% rise was recorded for shopping centres.
Edward Cooke, acting chief executive of the British Council of Shopping Centres, said: “LDC’s latest research shows vacancy rates declining for the fifth consecutive quarter, reaffirming the stable trend of declining vacancy at UK shopping centres driven by a strengthening occupier market and active asset management.
“In light of the high profile closures of BHS, Austin Reed and Store Twenty One and the recent Brexit vote, we expect the industry will be watching closely to see whether we have reached the top of the curve in terms of the long term trend of steadily falling vacancy rates or whether the trend continues into the second half of the year.”
