There is enough available space in shopping centres nationally to fill the new Westgate shopping centre in Oxford 11 times over, according to new research from EGi.
At 800,000 sq ft, the Westgate is the largest centre under construction in the UK, but the June Retail & Leisure Supplement reveals a raft of new centres in the pipeline will bring 6.5m sq ft to market by 2018.
The five largest schemes in Oxford, Bradford, Newport, Leeds and Birmingham will account for 2.5m sq ft alone when completed.
A further 9.8m sq ft is being proposed, and while availability is still high in many areas, overall occupancy rates for shopping centres crept up to 95% in Q1 2015, encouraging investment.
Available space nationally stands at 8.9m sq ft, but varies hugely around the UK. The South East has the most, at more than 1.5m sq ft (enough to fill 1.9 Westgates), but is also one of the largest retail markets.
By comparison, in the East of England there is just 272,000 sq ft available, which equates to 0.3 Westgates.
For full details of all the number, visit the Property in Numbers blog >>
