// Supermarket property investment has surged 80% to £1.78bn thanks to higher confidence

// While supermarket investment has risen, other sectors of retail industry have suffered from drop in activity

Investment in supermarket property has increased by 80 per cent to £1.78 billion in the last year as confidence in the outlook for UK grocers improved, according to new research.

The increase in investment is in sharp contrast to other sectors in retail which have suffered from a decline in activity, Colliers International found.

“Investors looking for property assets which offer solid returns underpinned by solid corporate covenants targeted the sector and took buying to levels that haven’t been seen since 2013,” Colliers’ head of retail capital markets Tom Edson said.

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“We have now seen capital market volumes in the sector of more than £1 billion annually for the past decade.

“During a period when UK retailing – and the property market it supports – has continued to be the subject of negative sentiment, the grocery sector has been the stand-out performer.”

Meanwhile, Supermarket Income REIT, the UK’s only listed company dedicated to supermarket property, reported a 1.6 per cent like-for-like growth in the value of its portfolio in the six months to the end of December – taking the total portfolio valuation to £490.4 million.

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