Click here to see graph: Where are developers targeting?
Developers have dropped town centre shopping centre schemes as confidence in the out-of-town and edge-of-town sector returns.
Almost 60% of schemes applied for last year were in out-of-town locations with just three town centre shopping centres in the pipeline in Botley, Hampshire; Sutton, Surrey; and Craigmillar, Edinburgh.
Overall, the number of schemes applied for in 2014 rose marginally to 19, with the South East securing the biggest vote of confidence at four centres.
London and the South accounted for 1.3m sq ft of the total 2.5m sq ft of retail applications submitted last year.
In total, the number of sq ft applied for dropped in all locations except for edge of town, where it rose by more than 60%.
Numbers were boosted by the Silvertown Quays Partnership lodging plans for 321,000 sq ft at Royal Docks, E16, which accounted for a tenth of all UK space applied for.
Developers’ confidence in retail in town centres slipped by 62%, making it the biggest loser this year despite calls by politicians to put the life back into town centres.
And it is not just fewer schemes being built in town, they are getting smaller too. Town centre project sizes slipped by around a third to average 130,000 sq ft.
Of the 2.5m sq ft of applications submitted last year, most were big urban extensions with significant retail and leisure elements attached.
Click here to see graph: What are retailers putting in schemes?
Click here to see graph: How have scheme sizes changed?
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