Investment in shopping centres in the first quarter of this year has rocketed 194 per cent on the same period in 2012, it has been announced.
According to property advisory firm Savills, shopping centre investment during Q1 of this year reached £1.43 billion, a 194 per cent rise on a year earlier when investment hit £488 million and a 111 per cent rise on the quarterly average in 2012 of £680 million.
Similarly, the value of deals during 2012 reached £2.7 billion, meaning that turnover during the first three months of this year is already over half the total investment over the course of last year.
Over the quarter, property company British Land purchased Ealing Broadway shopping centre in a £142 million deal while Intu Properties bought Milton Keynes‘ Midsummer Place for £250 million.
Last month, regional shopping centre Trinity Leeds opened its doors after a £378 million investment from Land Securities, providing over one million square feet of retail space in the city in a bid to drive footfall and rejuvenate the sector in the area and its surrounds.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Nick Hart, Head of Shopping Centre Investment at Savills, said: “The sales at Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes and Guildford demonstrate the appetite at the prime end of the market from Real Estate Investment Trusts and institutions and the levels at which they are prepared to pay to secure a prime asset.”
