York saw the biggest average retail deals of 2012 according to research by EGi.
The small historic city made a surprise entry at the top of the tables with the average deal 5, 820 sq ft against a UK average of 2,800 sq ft. London’s average deal by comparison was 3,221 sq ft.
The capital signed the highest number of deals of 2012 with 691 leases signed for head and shoulders above the next nearest contender Glasgow at 183. Both centre’s performance was up on 2011’s figure which totaled 525 and 115 respectively.
York’s figures were boosted by prelets to M&S and John Lewis at the new Monks Cross site which accounted for 220, 000 sq ft alone. Stripping these out and the average deal size fell to 1,571 sq ft.
Overall the total number of sq ft transacted has remained virtually constant since 2007, hovering around the 19m sq ft with 7156 deals signed for in 2012 against 6343 in 2011.
Graham Shone, head of retail at EGi, said: “The average deal will creep back above 3,000 sq ft in 2013 as demand by retailers for larger units begins to intensify.”
He added: “It’s a small surprise to see York at the top of the average ‘lot size’ list, but out-of-town prelets have bumped the city up the rankings. Centres such as York have a bigger gulf in size between the typical town centre unit and new, demand-driven, out-of-town space.”
Click on the interactive map below to see average deals by size. Click on the individual bubbles to see total number of deals.
