Convenience and community focus delivers robust performance
NewRiver Retail has unveiled strong results for the three months ended 30 June 2018.
The high level of retail occupancy has been sustained at 96.2% marginally down on March’s 96.5%). Footfall outperformed the UK benchmark by 50 bps, down 2.5% on a like-for-like basis. And average retail rent remains affordable and sustainable at £12.35 per sq ft (March 2018: £12.36 per sq ft)
The quarter saw 50 leasing events across 160,800 sq ft securing annual rent of £1.4m on average 2.4% ahead of the March 2018 ERV with an average lease length of 7.9 years.
Chief executive Allan Lockhart said: “This has been an active period for NewRiver, in which our continued focus on convenience & community retail and leisure assets, characterised by frequent spend on everyday essential goods and services, has enabled us to continue to deliver robust operational performance despite wider sector headwinds. Our portfolio is focused on the fastest growing and most sustainable sub-sectors of the UK retail market, with grocery, convenience stores, value clothing, health & beauty and discounters forming the core of our retail portfolio, and a deliberately limited exposure to department stores of just 0.1% of our total rent roll.”
