The recent casualties of BHS and Austin Reed highlight the healthy and sore spots of the UK’s current retail climate. The real estate portfolios of each retailer has shown which areas of the UK appear to be struggling against the backdrop of the British retail market. Combined, the portfolios represent 319 shops and around 4m sq ft of space. London and Glasgow combined have 300,000 sq ft of affected space, but they should be able to recover as they had 2.4m sq ft and 572,357 sq ft of retail take-up respectively last year, suggesting a healthy environment. However, smaller regional cities with less retail demand could find themselves with empty space on their hands – a potential headache for landlords.
