One in six shops in Scotland are vacant, a rate that is one of the highest in Britain, according to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and the Local Data Company figures.
The SRC warned vacancy rates may struggle to “ever fully recover”.
The rate remained 15.7% for the third consecutive quarter – an 0.4% improvement on the same point in 2021.
Scotland ranked eighth out of 11 areas UK-wide for the highest shop vacancy rates, with the north east of England ranking worst at 18.2%.
SRC director David Lonsdale said there is “little sign” of improvement north of the border.
“Scotland’s vacancy rate has plateaued over the past three quarters and seems stubbornly stuck at a fifth higher than during pre-pandemic times.
“Whilst there has been a small improvement over the past year, the fact is Scotland’s store vacancy rate is above that for Great Britain as a whole, with one in six stores lying empty.
“The volume of empty units is especially marked in shopping centres.
“The fallout from the cost-of-living crunch and pandemic is exerting a heavy toll on retail destinations, as does what increasingly looks like a sustained shift towards hybrid working. This could make it trickier for store vacancy rates to ever fully recover.”
In Scotland, shopping centre vacancies in the final quarter of 2022 remained unchanged from the same point in 2021 at 20.5%, with high street vacancies going from 14.7% to 14.8%.
Retail park vacancies improved to 9.8% in 2022, from 11.0% previously.
Lucy Stainton, director of the Local Data Company, said: “Retail parks continue to outperform other location types, which is perhaps an indication that some of those shopping habits formed during the height of Covid are sticking – with consumers favouring these drive-to locations and larger format units.
“The Christmas trading period seemed to indicate that consumers were favouring, and returning, to stores, alongside their online spend.”
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