By Michael Susin
Great Britain's overall store-vacancy rate improved in the fourth quarter of 2022 across all location types and marked its fifth consecutive quarter of fewer vacant stores.
The overall vacancy rate fell to 13.8% by the end of 2022, 0.1 percentage points better than in the third quarter and 0.6 percentage points ahead of the same period a year ago, the British Retail Consortium said in its latest vacancy monitor report on Friday.
Among retail locations, shopping center vacancies fell to 18.2% from 18.8% in the third quarter, while high street slightly improved to 13.8% from 13.9%. Retail park vacancies continued to be the lowest at 9.0%, a 0.7 percentage point reduction.
By region, Greater London, South East and East of England had the lowest vacancy rates, while the North East, Wales and West Midlands had the highest rates.
"While the number of empty stores reduced in the final quarter of 2022, vacancy rates haven't recovered to prepandemic levels. Retail occupancy was boosted by the return of international tourists visiting U.K. towns and cities and more frequent visits to offices," BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said.
The continued outperformance of retail parks could be an indication that some of the consumer behavior formed during the pandemic continue to be present, "with consumers favoring these drive-to locations and larger format units," Local Data Co.'s commercial director Lucy Stainton said.
"The Christmas trading period seemed to indicate that consumers were favoring, and returning to stores, alongside their online spend", Stainton added.
Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-27-23 0144ET
