The Central London retail property market: A fresh perspective

Abstract

This paper seeks to determine the current state of the Central London retail property market. The challenges of poor primary data are overcome through the employment of real, market-tested insights into the three key areas of market performance: supply (availability of new units), demand (from retailers) and performance (achieved rental levels). Central London is a large, diverse retail centre. As a consequence, and to test the belief that it is indeed a heterogeneous entity, nine distinct sub-markets were demarcated. The main conclusion of this paper is that the Central London retail market is in a healthy, robust state. The research confirms that retailers are continuing to seek out new stores, while at the same time incumbent retailers are reluctant to give up existing space. This is a solid indication as to the capital's vitality. Intrinsic to any retail assessment of Central London is an evaluation of the capital's current provision. In this regard, the retail attraction of Central London was assessed relative to two leading regional retail centres in the UK — Birmingham and Manchester — and two leading regional shopping centres — Bluewater and the Trafford Centre. This paper confirms that Central London has a diametrically superior offer to any of its UK rivals in terms of the depth, breadth and all-round quality of its retail provision.