The Return of Retail

Lots of encouraging facts and statistics here to support the argument that physical retail is back on investors' wish lists, as "increasingly, investment is finding its way back into the store base":

• LandSec raising £500m to acquire Gateshead Metrocentre (and that placing being over-subscribed); 
• growing rents amid competition between tenants for space; 
• flat-lining online sales growth (amid concerns about potential CVAs and administration for a good number of pure-play online retails); 
• surprisingly strong consumer spending (with multi/omni-channel retailers doing best); 
• over £1bn in acquisitions and new sales revealed in the last month alone; 
• retail REITs some of the best-performing listed entities.

Of course, there will be some wound-licking for some who bought at the top of the cycle, and we have not seen the end of tenant insolvency and restructuring (as any landlord of TG Jones may well be feeling), and there is still room for fingers to get burnt, but overall, the signs are looking good for the investor market for bricks-and-mortar retail.

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