A RETAIL park owned by M&G's shuttered property fund has been bought for more than £50m to be converted into warehouses.

The deal indicates the growing dominance of online retail which requires large amounts of warehouse space to service customers.

The 128,000 square feet Ravenside retail park in Edmonton, north London was acquired by warehouse company Prologis from M&G. M&G suspended trading in its property fund last month after investors rushed to withdraw money.

The move to convert a retail park into warehouse space is symbolic of the increasing importance of online retailers, which have grown at the expense of bricks and mortar rivals.

"The UK retail market is changing, as more and more people order goods online," said Robin Woodbridge, head of UK capital deployment at Prologis.

"Because of this, our customers, who include household retail names such as Amazon, Argos and John Lewis, need logistics facilities close to where people live and work, so they can fulfil deliveries of goods ordered online efficiently."

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper