High street lease availability slowing, says C & W report

25/08/2009 10:30

The rate of increase in the number of prime high street shops available to lease has halved in the three months to August, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Retail Availability report.

On an average high street, 12.6% of prime shops are now vacant or available to lease, a 0.4% increase on May’s figure.  

However, the previous increase on February’s figure was 0.8%, indicating that the rate of availability has slowed.

About 3.3% of the availability is as a result of retailer administrations, but this figure has remain unchanged since May, which suggests that administrations are decreasing, Cushman & Wakefield said.

The overall UK figure masks regional variations. The report found that South West and Wales saw an increase of 4.2% in three months and the region now has the joint highest availability in the UK, with an average 17.7% of high street shops vacant or available. Outer London has also seen a significant increase, to 17.7%.

The South East and Central London have the lowest levels of availability at 7.6% and 8.9% respectively. The South East has -2% fewer shops now available and Central London has fewer than 1% of shops available as expanding retailers take advantage of distressed situations.

John Strachan, head of retail services, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The average availability of shops across the UK has risen by only 0.4%, indicating that we may be at or approaching a peak in vacancies. Of the 12.6% vacant, 3.3% of these are stores previously occupied by retailers which have since gone into administration. This figure has remained the same since our previous survey in May and is further evidence that we have probably now seen most of the major high street administrations.  

"Although the increase in availability in the regions is significant, Central London and the South East are now seeing a decrease and we therefore expect other regions will follow from 2010.  The retail market remains very challenging, but we are seeing rising sales and confidence that the country will return to economic growth before the end of the year.”

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