Specialist property adviser, Christie & Co, has today launched its Retail & Leisure: 2024 Mid-Year Insight, which reflects on activity, trends and challenges across the UK’s convenience retail, petrol retailing, retail investment, garden centre, holiday park and marina markets in the first half of 2024 and provides an outlook for the rest of the year.
The publication notes that the positive business environment that characterised H2 2023 carried on into H1 2024, reflecting strong ongoing buyer demand for convenience retail, petrol stations, garden centres, marinas and holiday parks.
Christie & Co observed a significant increase in the number of forecourts and garden centre instructions which reflects the success of its recently expanded garden centre team and increased activity in the forecourt market
Additionally, the lending environment remains fluid – although a tad more expensive than in previous years – and lenders have continued to look favourable at convenience retail and leisure buyers’ assets due to the buoyancy of the market, which has helped to drive deal volumes.
A summary of market insights from each of Christie & Co’s specialist areas are as follows. Further insights can be found in the full report.
- Convenience: H1 2024 was characterised by strong demand for high turnover stores. Experienced operators want to expand their portfolios and managers want to buy their first store. This mix illustrates the strength of demand for needs-driven convenience retail and the view that the sector is a solid industry in which to invest. Subsequently, Christie & Co continues to receive multiple offers per site.
- Petrol filling stations: During the first half of the year, Christie & Co brought twice the number of forecourts to the market compared to H1 23. The biggest operators are focussed on larger sites with potential for multiple uses. The wider pool of buyers, from smaller multiple operators to first-time buyers, have shown appetite for assets at all levels of the market.
- Garden centres: There was plenty of activity and good transaction volumes across the UK garden centre market in H1 2024. By the second week of May, Christie & Co achieved a significant milestone, having arranged 100 viewings on live opportunities in the south. This led to 27 offers, many of which were at acceptable levels. As a result, the team anticipates completing 14 garden centre transactions in the coming months. There is also strong demand in the North primarily driven by multisite owners seeking to expand by acquiring large sites that offer a mix of retail, food & beverage and horticulture.
- Leisure: There was an increase in market activity relative to 2023 in both the UK holiday park and marina markets. The successful marketing of Project Charles (Royale Life assets in Administration) led to several other mandates and projects it hope to bring forward in H2.
Steve Rodell, managing director – retail & leisure, comments: “We have successfully navigated through some uncertain macro-economic waters in the last two years. We knew activity was on the rise in H2 2023, and 2024 has continued in the same vein. We took some bold steps to expand our markets and it is very encouraging how the markets have received our involvement. Our team must be thanked for being available to our client base throughout this period. They are key to delivering our services.”
