North West leads the way as shopping centre vacancy rates fall
New figures have shown that shopping centres in the North West experienced a significant drop in vacancy rates during the second quarter of 2015 compared with the same period last year.
The latest vacancy index by British Council of Shopping Centres and the Local Data Company reveals that vacancy rates in the North West region fell by 1.7% year-on-year. This builds on the strong decline in vacancy in the first quarter of this year.
Overall, the picture amongst regional shopping centres was shown to be healthy, with centres in the East of England, West Midlands and South West also reporting falling vacancy rates. The North West was well ahead of the second best performing region, the East of England, which reported a 1.4% drop.
The index also reveals that shopping centres in the UK experienced an overall fall in vacancy of 0.4% in second quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2014.
Scotland recorded the largest rise in vacancy with a 1.4% increase, while the East Midlands experienced a 0.9% increase. This was followed by the North East where vacancy was up by 0.4% and Yorkshire and The Humber, which recorded a slight increase of 0.1%.
While the South East continued to perform well with a 1.1% drop in vacancy, there was a slight decline in London of 0.1%.
Leisure occupancy in larger shopping centres increased marginally by 0.1% and was also up in smaller centres by 0.2%.
John Coyne, chief executive of British Council of Shopping Centres, said: “This latest data points to encouraging signs that the regions are catching up as the economic recovery continues to be felt. Scotland, however, appears to be the exception to this trend with the index reporting a not insignificant increase in vacancy rates for the second quarter in a row this year. Ripples following the Scottish referendum, the SNP landslide victory in May and forthcoming elections at Holyrood could mean retailers are approaching Scotland with caution when considering locations for expansion.”
Matthew Hopkinson, director of The Local Data Company, added: “Whilst this is encouraging movement in the vacancy rate overall, shopping centres still lag behind the high street whose vacancy rate, which is 11.7% and fell by 0.2% in the same period. So whilst higher the shopping centres have been improving at twice the rate!”
