Specialist property adviser, Christie & Co, has launched its Retail & Leisure: 2023 Mid-Year Insight, which reflects on activity, trends and challenges across the UK’s convenience retail, forecourt, garden centre and leisure markets in the first half of 2023 and provides an outlook for the rest of the year.

The publication reveals that the UK’s Retail & Leisure sectors are largely bucking any negative trends in the mainstream property market, as buyers remain active and demand for correctly priced opportunities remains strong. 

This is supported by the latest Christie & Co data unveiled in the report, which indicates that new buyer registrations have more than doubled compared to the same period in 2022 and the average number of offers per instruction is up 5% on this time last year.

Retail deals are based on needs-driven enterprises (such as fuel, food, beverages), meaning trading fundamentals remain robust, whilst garden centre business is driven by leisure and home-based spending, both of which are on the rise. The UK holiday park market also remains in growth off the back of Covid and the staycation boom. Buyers recognise these strong underlying traits and want to invest their resources in opportunities underpinned by these trends.

The key market insights from each of these specialist areas are as follows:

• Convenience: Sites that came to the market attracted an average of 14 offers per store. Values often exceeded seller expectations for all types of assets in H1 as buyers continue to outweigh stock levels.
• Petrol filling stations: Sites that came to the market attracted a healthy level of interest, receiving an average of 11 offers per site. Individual transaction levels were subdued but there was no shortage of buyers for going concern acquisitions in H1.
• Garden centres: buyer interest remains strong, with our latest statical analysis showing that we achieved 97% of our asking prices in recent transactions.
• Leisure: whilst a reduction in consumer spending continued to challenge UK leisure in H1, many businesses with an experiential, outdoor or staycation-led focus continued to fare better than others. Our pick of the markets to watch include Holiday Parks, Marinas and Health & Fitness.

Steve Rodell, Managing Director – Retail & Leisure comments, “It’s very encouraging that despite the recent rise in interest rates, buyers have continued to seek out the opportunities we bring to the market. The deals we are doing further underpin the valuation assignments which continue to come thick and fast. ‘Reading the leaves’ and judging by the deals in legals, we expect the second half of 2023 to be as strong, if not stronger, than H1.”

To read and download the full ‘Retail & Leisure: 2023 Mid-Year Review’, CLICK HERE.