British Land is rapidly ploughing capital into the retail park development sector following a “particularly strong” market performance.
Since April, the development company has invested £711 million into retail park acquisitions, offloading hundreds of millions of pounds of non-core assets to pursue what it describes as ‘one of its preferred subsectors’.
“Since 2021 we have increased our exposure to retail parks from 15 per cent of the portfolio to 32 per cent today,” said chief executive, Simon Carter.
“This conviction is paying off, with retailers competing for cost-efficient out-of-town space to support their online operations.
“This is leading to strong rental growth and valuation uplifts which are outperforming all other subsectors.”
He added: “The continued strength of our occupational markets, underpins our guidance of 3-5 per cent rental growth across the portfolio, and our ability to generate attractive future returns.”
British Land currently has 98 per cent portfolio occupancy, with performance levels high in the following subsectors:
- Campuses: 97 per cent
- Retail parks: 99 per cent
- London urban logistics: 100 per cent
Among its non-core asset disposals since 1 April 2024 is Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield, which completed in July this year.
In its 2024/25 half-year results issued this morning, British Land posted a 1 per cent increase in underlying profit of £143 million and underlying earnings per share (EPS) of 15.3p, also up 1 per cent.
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