West End flourishing, says Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury, the listed REIT, has provided an illustration of the buoyant trading conditions in London’s West End, where its investment and development strategy is focused.
In sharp contrast to the cautious statements recently made by other property companies, and the commentaries indicating tough markets elsewhere in the UK, Shaftesbury said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange yesterday: “Despite the challenges evident in the wider economy, we are confident that the underlying strengths of the locations in which we invest and our management strategy will continue to deliver sustained outperformance in income and capital values.”
The group, which owns more than 500 shops, restaurants, cafes and bars in the West End, said it had continued to experience good demand, particularly for its larger shops, well-located restaurants and residential accommodation, as the West End continued to flourish despite the uncertain economic outlook for the UK as a whole.
Shaftesbury said that as of 31 July, 72% of the space in its joint-venture St Martin’s Courtyard development in Covent Garden was either let, pre-let or under offer, and it had seen “active interest” in the remaining single restaurant and eight shops still available. The marketing of the remaining office space in the development was running ahead of completion, it added.
As at 31 July, the group had no available retail space among the larger shops in its portfolio(rent over £100,000 pa) and a total of 23 smaller shops (average rent £45,000 pa) were ready to let or under offer.
