British Land collects half of rents, says retail parks are strong

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 9, 2020

Retail landlord British Land said Friday that all of its retail assets and 86% of stores are now open and retailer sales are at 90% of this time last year. 

But the Meadowhall and Drake Circus malls owner said the prestige malls aren’t what’s driving those figures. In fact, its open-air out-of-town retail parks are driving its outperformance. Some 48% of its retail assets are in out-of-town retail parks.

Rent-wise, it has collected only 57% of the total for the June quarter, but it has already achieved 50% of retail rents for the September quarter.

Last month, the company saw footfall across its retail properties of 84% of the September 2019 figure, “which represents a continuation of the consistent improvement in footfall we have seen since the reopening of non-essential retail in June”. That puts it 21% ahead of the wider national retail footfall figures based on the ShopperTrak UK National Footfall Index.

But we can see how much stronger retail parks are as it added that September footfall to its retail parks was 89% of the same period last year and like-for-like sales for stores that were open were 93%. 

It saw strong performances from the Giltbrook park in Nottingham, Mayflower in Basildon and Nugent in Orpington. Stores at those parks include Next, M&S, Clarks, Superdrug, Decathlon, Boots, and TK Maxx.

British Land added that occupancy across its retail portfolio remains high at 95% as of 30 September.