BRITISH Land has said the UK economy is more "resilient" than expected, as the property developer is close to 100 per cent occupancy for its urban logistics schemes and retail parks.

In a half year trading update, the commercial property giant said that underlying profit grew 3.4 per cent to £142m but IFRS loss after tax widened from £32m last year to £61m.

The company's share price rose over six per cent yesterday as the UK market responded to the news.

Despite this, chief Simon Carter said that he was pleased with the performance thanks to "another strong period of leasing and good cost control".

The developer behind Broadgate Circle has reported that retail parks have an underlying vacancy of 0.8 per cent compared to UK retail market vacancy of 13.9 per cent.

In recent months, retail parks are proving a popular option because they are "low maintenance" and cheaper than taking space at a traditional high street store or shopping centre.

Meanwhile, its urban logistics schemes, which are warehouse spaces in cities, have also benefited from the rise in demand for e-commerce.

British Land owns a host of these sites within the M25 and Zone 1 of London, where supply is highly constrained.

The company said its portfolio is focused on "densification and repurposing opportunities in central London" and that its urban logistics development pipeline has a gross development value of £1.3bn.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper