Property takes measures to mitigate impact of coronavirus

Property companies are ramping up emergency planning to combat the impact of coronavirus in a battle to keep business going in challenging conditions. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has announced the company’s shopping centres in France, Spain, Poland, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are “substantially closed” apart from food stores, supermarkets and pharmacies. Trading hour limitations have also been applied in Denmark. Other shopping centres are trading as normal “albeit with reduced footfall”, the company said in a statement released today – although this could change if other governments decide to shut down shops to minimise the spread of the virus. The landlord’s convention and exhibition business has also been impacted as a result of the French government’s decision to restrict gatherings of more than 100 people. URW said it was in “active dialogue” with its tenants about how to address these “unprecedented challenges”. The statement continued: “At this stage, it is too early to determine the situation’s impact on the contractual obligations of the group’s retailers and other partners or to estimate the effect of any case-by-case support measures the group may decide on. “URW is actively reducing non-staff expenses, deferring non-essential capital expenditure and will make use of any relevant facilities or arrangements provided by the various national authorities to assist companies through the crisis.” In terms of the economic impact on the business, URW said it was “not currently possible” to measure this, considering the “uncertainty around this rapidly evolving situation and how long the above preventative measures will need to remain in place”. Amid news that some UK universities have suspended face-to-face teaching, Unite announced it will operate a “reduced programme of summer business in 2020” owing to the risk of disruption to bookings that coronavirus could have. A statement released by the company said: “The removal of variable costs associated with our summer business will help to mitigate the impact on earnings, which we do not expect to be material. Summer business accounted for 3% of rental income in 2019.” However, there has been “no noticeable impact” on Unite’s sales performance for the 2020-21 academic year. “Reservations are currently 77% (77% at the same time last year) and sales to and enquiries from international students remain in line with prior years.” In a trading update from Laura Ashley, the retailer said that while the company has not seen “a significant financial impact” because of coronavirus, it has the potential to “negatively influence future trading as a result of reduced footfall”. To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette