Shop rents hit £130 a sq ft

7:30am Saturday 27th September 2008

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SHOP rents in Wycombe have risen from £90 a sq ft to £130 a sq ft in a year.

A market report by leading commercial property advisers Colliers CRE says the “monumental growth” makes the town the top performing shopping centre in the South East in rental income.

The statistics are based on the amount rents have increased in the 12 months from May 2007 to May this year.

The report says: “The level of growth is unsurprising as the new 850,000 sq ft Eden shopping centre which opened in March this year attracted a great deal of interest from retailers and was 95 per cent let on completion.”

Tim Buckley, head of retail development for Brookfield, the Australian company which took over Eden developer Multiplex shortly before the launch, pointed out that Colliers’ figures published this week relate to the new shops in the Eden complex.

They do not apply to the overall Eden scheme which includes the former Octagon shopping mall.

“Overall, the scheme is just shy of 90 per cent let,” he said.

“Since the rental statistics were compiled we have done a number of transactions in excess of £130 per sq ft.”

Daniel Collins at Philip Marsh Collins Deung, the Beaconsfield based commercial agency, says rents in the outlying market towns have increased almost as much as in Wycombe.

He said: “Marlow is approaching that figure. Shops in prime positions are fetching more than £120 per sq ft. Rents in Old Amersham are now £100 per sq ft, units in Beaconsfield Old Town are fetching more than £80 per sq ft.”

The Subway sandwich shop, a new arrival in Beaconsfield, will be paying £33,000 a year for the former Kodak Express shop in Maxwell Road. The rent represents a 40 per cent hike on the previous figure of £23,500 set at the last rent review in September 2005.