// New data from Real Business Rescue reveals the 10 most and least expensive retail rental areas in the UK
// Blackpool is the most affordable area, where the average price is 75% lower than in London
London has unsurprisingly topped the UK’s most expensive area for retail rents.
Insolvency specialists Real Business Rescue analysed current commercial retail listings to find the most and least expensive areas in the UK for business owners to open stores.
The capital was the most expensive with the average rents hitting £49.64.
| Rank | Top 10 most expensive | Top 10 least expensive | ||
| Town/City | Average price** | Town/City | Average price** | |
| 1 | London | £49.64 | Blackpool | £12.45 |
| 2 | Oxford | £49.51 | Rotherham | £12.48 |
| 3 | York | £47.75 | Stoke-on-Trent | £12.91 |
| 4 | Cambridge | £46.78 | Hartlepool | £13.09 |
| 5 | Leeds | £44.88 | Telford | £13.23 |
| 6 | Chester | £43.14 | Blackburn | £13.42 |
| 7 | Milton Keynes | £41.21 | Nuneaton | £15.07 |
| 8 | St Albans | £38.53 | Rochdale | £15.10 |
| 9 | Bath | £37.96 | Grimsby | £15.30 |
| 10 | Crawley | £34.72 | Halifax | £16.45 |
However, there is a big disparity in rents across London ranging from £86.18 in Kensington and Chelsea to £23.16 in Barking and Dagenham.
| Rank | Top 10 most expensive | Top 10 least expensive | ||
| Borough | Average price* | Borough | Average price* | |
| 1 | Kensington and Chelsea | £86.18 | Barking and Dagenham | £23.16 |
| 2 | City of London | £63.96 | Havering | £23.70 |
| 3 | Camden | £56.21 | Hillingdon | £26.08 |
| 4 | Westminster | £49.36 | Barnet | £27.83 |
| 5 | Islington | £45.32 | Sutton | £27.99 |
| 6 | Kingston upon Thames | £45.23 | Lewisham | £28.73 |
| 7 | Southwark | £45.22 | Croydon | £29.22 |
| 8 | Hammersmith and Fulham | £43.94 | Redbridge | £29.73 |
| 9 | Ealing | £43.25 | Bromley | £32.77 |
| 10 | Richmond upon Thames | £42.97 | Greenwich | £33.35 |
Across the UK as a whole, Oxford was the second most expensive area, with average rents of £49.51.
Although recent reports have said that Oxford is among some of the UK’s worst for empty retail units since the pandemic, retail rent could still be at a premium due to council investment in the area, a budding population of younger professionals thanks to planned new housing developments, and tourism generating £780m of income a year for local businesses.
The third highest average price per square foot per year is another tourist haven, York, at £47.75.
In terms of the most affordable retail rental price, Blackpool is the cheapest at an average of £12.45 per square foot per year.
Despite the low rents, Blackpool saw a record boom in visitors in 2021 following the pandemic with more than 12 million people visiting the town centre compared to about 9 million in 2019.
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Shaun Barton, national online business operations director at Real Business Rescue said: “Rental prices are just one of the many rising costs affecting businesses across the nation as they battle through one of the toughest periods they’ve ever faced due to the ‘cost of doing business crisis’ and rising inflation.
“Not only do these prices lead to vacant retail spaces, which can have damaging effects on high streets up and down the country, but it’s another pressure point for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) everywhere.”
Barton said the lifting of the moratorium on landlord debt collection has “increased significantly” the pressure on retailers.
“With the fallout from the pandemic, and now a ‘cost of doing business crisis’, it is clear that a significant number of retailers across the country are facing a battle to remain financially solvent and viable,” he said.
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