BRAEHEAD owner Intu Properties has said it believes the UK retail environment is still continuing to improve.
The company, which also owns the likes of the Trafford Centre in Manchester, the Lakeside in Essex and Gateshead's Metrocentre. said occupancy across its portfolio was steady at 95 per cent in the three months to March 31.
David Fischel, chief executive, said: "The strong momentum of our development projects continues, with signs of increased retailer interest as the UK retail environment continues to improve, particularly for space in those centres where investment and improvement projects are underway or imminent."
Intu did not give any update on the proposed £200 million extension at Braehead, between the existing Xscape facility and the shopping centre, which would include a department store plus additional shops and leisure facilities.
It said there were 50 new long-term leases signed in the quarter which was said to represent £8.1m of new rental income.
It highlighted the opening of the Kuoni holiday store in Braehead as one of the significant deals it struck.
Intu said the overall terms across all leases were in aggregate five per cent greater than previous passing rent but in line with valuations.
Footfall was reported to be one per cent ahead of the same period of 2013.
Investment intentions also appear to be picking up and Intu said: "There appears to be good investment demand, particularly from overseas investors who are looking for better quality shopping centres."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article