Shoppers in Covent Garden (AFP via Getty Images)
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Central London is roaring back from the depths of the “pandemic hit” with demand for new store sites at record levels, a major new report says.
Property experts at consultants Colliers say they have been impressed by the strength of the capital’s battered retail sector after two years of lockdowns, work-from-home advice and tourist “no-shows”.
Their research shows that 101,000 sq ft of retail space in the West End alone is being refurbished or redeveloped, three times the level of December 2019 and 49 per cent up on the five-year average.
Major schemes under way include a 37,000 sq ft mixed-use office and retail development at a corner site on 80, New Bond Street and 325, Oxford Street, the Hanover development at Hanover Square in Mayfair, The Collection in Knightsbridge, and the Waitrose and Curzon cinema redevelopment on King’s Road.
Paul Souber, head of central London retail at Colliers, said that while there had been devastating closures on Oxford Street such as the department stores Debenhams and House of Fraser and Sir Philip Green’s Topshop at Oxford Circus, these had created “once-in-a-generation” opportunities for new retailers to move in. For example the former Topshop building has been bought for Ikea for its first central London outlet while the former Debenhams flagship is going to be turned into a new shopping and office destination.
Mr Souber said in the past year alone he had received more than 1,000 requests to find space for retailers or restaurants in central London.
They had come from companies in 33 countries and 177 were from businesses that had never before had a presence in London.
He said: “In 33 years working in this business I can never remember a period like that. It is a really significant indication of what is happening.”
Walter Boettcher, head of research and economics at Colliers, said he had walked through all central London’s major shopping streets from King’s Road to Cheapside during January —normally the bleakest time of the year for retailers — to assess the scale of the damage wreaked by Covid.
He said: “I expected to go out there and find a catastrophe, but there was no catastrophe, what I found was far more resilience than I thought.”
The report did find that the number of empty sites went up in many areas, particularly the City, during the pandemic as businesses failed, but said it expected these “void rates” to fall as the recovery picks up.
