British Land has said its retail park portfolio remains virtually full at 99 per cent occupancy, as strong leasing and rental growth helped underpin a positive full-year trading update.

In an update for the year ended 31 March 2026, ahead of its preliminary results on 20 May, the landlord said retail parks continued to outperform, with leasing in the second half signed 6.3 per cent ahead of previous passing rents.

Across the full year, new entrants to its parks helped drive leasing 3.4 per cent ahead of previous passing rents.

Chief executive Simon Carter said: “This has been an excellent year of leasing, reflecting our market-leading position in campuses and retail parks, where availability for high-quality space in the right locations is near record lows, and occupational fundamentals continue to strengthen, despite ongoing macroeconomic volatility.”

British Land said like-for-like net rental growth reached six per cent over the year. It now expects underlying profit of £294m and underlying EPS of 28.9p for FY26, up from 28.5p the year before, alongside an 8.1 per cent total accounting return.

The company also struck a bullish note on its campuses business, where demand from AI and innovation-led occupiers is helping push rental growth higher.

Reuters reported that British Land has lifted its annual earnings outlook as tech demand, including from firms such as Anthropic and OpenAI, supports its London campus portfolio.

Shares in the company rose in early trading after the update, as investors responded positively to the combination of retail park strength and improving office demand.

British Land said it was confident in its earnings growth outlook for FY27 and beyond.

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