Edinburgh and Glasgow are among the most resilient retail centres in the UK, according to new analysis by Knight Frank.
The commercial property consultancy’s research found that Edinburgh had the most productive retail space of any major UK city outside of London.
The Scottish capital achieved a ‘sales density’ of £665 per sq ft prior to the opening of the St James Quarter.
Glasgow was behind Edinburgh, with £611 per sq ft, against an average of £329 per sq ft across 39 UK cities analysed.
A higher sales density figure indicates strong levels of productivity, while a low number suggests under-performance and or an oversupply of retail space.
Edinburgh and Glasgow also performed well on other key measures assessing the health of retail destinations.
Glasgow city centre has seen retail rents re-base just -1.9% over the last 10 years, while Edinburgh was -12.5% against a UK cities’ average of -35.2%.
Last year, the vacancy rates in both cities were also below the UK cities’ average of 20.3%, at just 13% for Edinburgh and 18.7% for Glasgow.
Alasdair Steele, head of Scotland commercial at Knight Frank, said: “There has been a lot of talk about retail repurposing, but the level of activity has thus far been fairly limited. It can be a complicated and costly process and often the numbers do not stack up from an investor’s perspective.”
Stephen Springham, head of retail research at Knight Frank, added: “The proposed plans for Edinburgh’s Jenners department store and Buchanan Galleries are two of the highest profile examples of retail space being re-purposed in city centres in the UK.
“Yet, perhaps ironically, they are two of the least over-supplied city centre markets. The devil in the detail is that, in Scotland, our research suggests it is out-of-town where retail space is most over-supplied, rather than in city centres, and this is where change of use is most likely to follow. The question is whether this out-of-town floorspace is viable for alternative use.”
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