North East bucks the trend as retail permissions rise

The North East has outperformed the national trend in the retail sector – with just 2.6 years’ worth of stock on the market at the current pace of take-up, against a national figure of 2.8 years. Only four regions performed better than the North East by this metric. This performance has been noticed by retail landlords and developers, with permissions for new retail space in the region jumping 17% against last year – bucking the national trend, which indicated almost a 40% drop in permissions for new space amid what has been a turbulent twelve months for the physical retail market. The North East was the only region in which permissions for new retail space increased year-on-year. In the office and industrial markets, the region has performed less well. However, for offices, a great deal of the space currently actively marketed is for large-scale units in business parks, with 30% of all available space sitting in those types of units – a national high – which means that any activity within these spaces would immediately serve to boost the region’s statistical standing against country-wide averages. With industrial property, it is again a case of larger-scale units skewing figures slightly. Spaces measuring over 100,000 sq ft have an absorption rate of more than eight years against active take-up over the past year. Everything beneath that figure is performing much closer to the national average, and developers have kept their faith in the region’s industrial market, with 76% more space being permitted over the last year than in the previous 12 months – a national high. To send feedback, e-mail graham.shone@egi.co.uk or tweet @GShoneEG or @estatesgazette Main image © REX/Shutterstock