Fiona Brownfoot
4 comments By Fiona Brownfoot
Thanks for the article Ian - 'entertaining' as always.
As an agent 'on the ground' the last 6 months have been nothing short of phenomenal in terms of lettings activity, given the market we are operating in.
There are definitely two parallel, but utterley contrasting markets operating - dominating the headlines is obviously the collapse of so many multiples, but coming through in large numbers is the emergence of a mix of new co's; existing independants and small chains who are taking much of the vacated space. The demand from these operators is due to them having businesses which have either faired strangely better during the constrained trading periods, and/or have a business which they consider will flourish in the brave new world.
The availability of units at rebased rents allows them to secure more prime pitches than they previously would have been able to lease, and /or secure fitted units (particularly true in the restaurant market) which saves many £'000's on fit out.
The same can obvioulsy not be said for units of 3,000 sq ft and those units do indeed present a substantial (insurmountable?) problem, and many retail centres will be decimated if they are heavily exposed to the collapse of those large retailers.
But a hope in the horizon is that in some locations, the retail offer will move to be less homogenous and therefore more interesting and hopefully will ensure its sustainability.If retailers looked in the mirror before blaming their failure on everything else, they might stand a chance of seeing the real problem.
Excellent article Mark. Ive always said that shopping centres are a business first, and a property asset second. Unfortunately, a lot of property assets are owned by the wrong people, who dont understand what their role is, and have completely unrealistic expectations of their 'asset'.
Local councils buying into retail property is a good move, but its not shopping centres that we need them to be buying - its High Streets. This would then overcome one of the (many!) major hurdles in retailing today, and that is of fragmentation of ownership. IF the high streets were owned by a single entity, it would allow them to be run more like a shopping centres with control, for tenants mix, investment and innovation to create the right experience.
There also needs to be a lot more joined up thinking within regions. Rocks dropped in the retail landscape pond by the addition of shiny new centres, ripple out far and wide and impact on the viability of other retailing locations within an expansive catchtment area. We're not increasing the spend, just moving it around so for every 'winner' there will be a number of 'losers'.
Commented on: 2020-12-03T12:05:20.787
‘Covid may bring chance to rebuild high street experience for a new age’