British Land cheers growing retail park portfolio

British Land chief executive Simon Carter has said the company continues to see “good opportunities” to buy retail parks after sealing a string of deals in recent months. Since April the REIT has spent £240m on six assets with a blended net equivalent yield of 7.4%: Orchard Centre in Didcot and Cyfarthfa Shopping Park in Merthyr Tydfil from Brookfield; Enham Arch Retail Park in Andover, Queen’s Drive Retail Park in Kilmarnock and St David’s Retail Park in Bangor from M7 Real Estate; Southampton Road Retail Park in Salisbury; and the remaining 12.5% interest in New Mersey Retail Park in Speke. The deals are in line with British Land’s plan to reinvest the £360m from the sale of Meadowhall Shopping Centre into its retail park portfolio, and will increase FY26 earnings per share by 0.7p. Carter said: “We are seeing good opportunities to allocate capital into retail parks, and have swiftly delivered our plan to fully offset the earnings dilution from the £360m Meadowhall disposal with the acquisition of £240m of high-quality retail parks at attractive yields. With low capex requirements, parks offer attractive cash returns and, with 99% occupancy, our portfolio is delivering strong rental growth.”