UK high streets will see a gradual recovery to their peak level of 2006 with empty shops almost halving, but Scotland faces a sterner struggle, says the annual retail review of Colliers International.
It warns that moves to revive Scottish high streets will be "window-dressing" without a rating revaluation, now postponed until 2017.
John Duffy, head of in town retail for Colliers in Scotland, said expanding retailers were targeting regional and city centres and to some extent bypassing small and medium-sized towns.
But he added: "High street vacancy rates are beginning to plateau and coupled with a slowdown in corporate failures, we expect a less negative impact on the high street than in recent years."
The threat from online sales would also subside with internet non-food retailing expected to flatline at 20% from 2020.
Chris Humphrey, Scottish retail director, said. "The world of retail property is not completely dead, there are a number of operators who continue to expand despite the conditions."
They included discount chains Poundworld, Poundland and B&M, all looking for sites including in Scotland, and US retailers such as Forever 21 now in Glasgow and Apple opening in Edinburgh later this year. Many of the Jessops, Peacocks, Game, Clintons, Blacks and TJ Hughes stores had been salvaged from administrators, phone shops were still buoyant, and the UK's 15,700 coffee shops were expected to rise to more than 20,000 by 2017, as wifi helped turn them into alternative working locations.
Peter Muir, rating director, said: "A move to encourage people back into town centres will fail unless the Scottish government addresses the growing discrepancy between non-domestic rates and the harsh realities of the property market."
He said a shop's rateable value could now be three or four times the achievable rent, instead of close to it.
One factor in the recent administration of the Kyle centre in Ayr had been the cut in landlords' empty property relief from 50% to 10%, Mr Muir said.
Tony Aitken, head of planning for Colliers UK, said planning laws on changes of use had already been relaxed south of the Border, but in Scotland a town centre task force had been at work for a year.
"We are waiting with bated breath as to their proposals and recommendations," Mr Aitken said.
"In the year it has taken, England have gone ahead and done it in three months, they are doing things we are talking about."
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