// Net rental income across Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s UK shopping centres down 4.2%
// This makes it the worst performing region in the shopping centre group, as continental Europe & the US saw growth
// However, footfall across UK centres through December 31 was up 2.8%
Westfield’s parent company has scaled back its development pipeline and ramped up its disposal programme as net retail income fell across its UK centres last year.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield reported a 4.2 per cent decline in like-for-like net rental income in the UK for the year to 31 December 2019 – making it the worst performing region for the group as both the US and continental Europe recorded growth of 2.4 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
However, the shopping centre giant said footfall across UK centres for the same full-year period was up 2.8 per cent, outperforming the wider shopping centre index by 530 bps.
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Tenant sales also increased by 4.7 per cent and vacancies across the portfolio dropped from 8.7 per cent on June 30 down to 7.7 per cent by the end of 2019.
The full year results also saw Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield announce its decision to scale back its development pipeline from €11.9 billion (£9.9 billion) to €8.3 billion (£6.97 billion).
The firm also said total disposals in 2019 were €1.3 billion (£1.09 billion), while confirming the further disposal of a 54.2 per cent stake in five French shopping centres.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield added that there are ongoing discussions for further disposals in 2020, as they “are a critical part of its strategy of concentration, differentiation and innovation”.
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