Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Latest data shows UK shop vacancy rates 'back to 2010 levels'

15 Apr 2015, 2:29 pm

The percentage of UK shops left lying vacant fell to a rate last seen in 2010 last month, reflecting "the wider positive news on consumer sentiment and spend", according to the Local Data Company (LDC).

LDC, which tracks over 550,000 retail and leisure outlets in high streets, town centres, shopping centres and retail packs, said that the shop vacancy rate had fallen to 13% by the end of March 2015, down from 13.1% the previous month. The combined retail and leisure vacancy rate also fell slightly over the same period, from 11.7% to 11.6%.

Matthew Hopkinson, director of LDC, said that the numbers were "encouraging". However, he said that trading conditions remained challenging for retailers.

"Recent closure news from B&Q and Morrisons show that these numbers can very easily change in the opposite direction," he said.

"Whilst these numbers show more shops opening, we are also seeing structural change where shops are changing use to alternative uses, and March saw the largest number of demolished properties at 95 [up from 40 in February]. [However], whilst one should not underestimate the challenges retailers face with price deflation and a very savvy consumer we are continuing to see the growth of food and beverage outlets on our high streets which will occupy vacant shops when planning allows," he said.

Retail property expert Andrea McIlroy-Rose of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, agreed that the slight reductions in vacancy rates were encouraging.

"However, a combination of the uncertainty around the upcoming election, issues such as the rates reform and the continuing trend amongst retailers to rationalise their portfolios means that it should not be viewed too optimistically at this stage," she said.

In its half-yearly report on national vacancy rates, published in February 2015 and covering the second half of 2014, LDC found that although shop vacancy rates across the UK were improving slowly, a significant number of the empty shops could be classed as long-term empty. It found that 70% of vacant shops in the large towns with the highest vacancy rates had been empty for one year or longer, while 20% of all vacant properties had been empty for more than three years.