The latest LocateVenues research from international real estate advisor Colliers, which monitors the retail and leisure offering at commercial venues across the UK, has placed Manchester City Centre in the top spot in a ranking of over 25,000 retail and leisure locations nationwide.
LocateVenues analyses metrics including venue type, brand presence and strength, vacancy and refurbishment rates, floorspace availability, price positioning (value vs luxury) and category mix. The 25,000+ venues in the research, which are defined as individual destinations, range from major city centres; local town and neighbourhood shopping streets; malls; designer outlets; retail and leisure parks; to standalone grocery stores; service stations; retail in rail stations, hospitals and business parks.
Retaining its top spot since 2019, Manchester’s recognition as the UK’s leading retail and leisure destination is underpinned by several key factors. Manchester remains the leading venue owing to its weighted count of multiple retailers and extensive trading space. Additionally, Manchester boasts the third lowest vacancy rate among its peers, which include 19 major town and city centres outside London. This low vacancy rate reflects the city’s vibrant commercial activity and strong demand for retail space.
Manchester also stands out with the highest mix of leisure offerings in its peer group, with 52 per cent of the commercial space dedicated to activities such as cinemas, food and beverage outlets, and bowling. This is significantly higher than the 40 per cent average for comparable locations, emphasising Manchester’s appeal as a multifaceted leisure destination.
The city was closely followed by other major city centre retail locations, with Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool making up the top five. A noteworthy shift in this year’s ranking saw Brighton take the tenth spot, indicating a notable rise in its commercial significance as a retail venue.
Due to its size and scale, the research sees London delineated into its various submarkets, with London’s Bond Street retaining its place as the most luxury-focused venue in the UK, closely followed by Bicester Village. London’s St Katherine’s Dock ranked most highly across F&B focused venues, with nearby Borough Market taking the second spot.
Paul Matthews, co-head of Retail Strategy & Analytics at Colliers, comments: “Our analysis of over 25,000 venues aims to form the most comprehensive overview of commercial retail and leisure locations across the UK. In our latest findings, our rankings are clearly characterised by the dominance of major UK city centres, with their diversified retail offering, large floorspaces, and high footfall setting them apart as the leading destinations for retail and leisure occupiers in the UK. Understanding the ever-changing dynamics of retail locations is fundamental for our clients in making location investment decisions, and LocateVenues is designed to provide a robust, comprehensive evaluation of the scale and profile of the UK retail landscape to support our work helping our clients achieve their goals.”
The research from Colliers goes on to analyse specific retail sectors, including malls, retail parks, leisure parks, and outlets. In the latest ranking for malls, Westfield London took the top spot from Manchester’s Trafford Centre as out-of-town malls race to repurpose vacant space from former department stores and defunct retailers. Colliers found that most major malls now over-index on F&B, however, Livingston, Merry Hill, and Braehead stand out as opportunities for an improved leisure offer.
For retail parks, the largest and highest ranked park, Westwood Cross in Kent, is found to be equivalent in scale to many ‘mid-regional’ towns, such as Horsham or Blackpool, highlighting the growing scale of the UK’s most prime retail parks. Colliers also found that most retail parks lean heavily on a fashion-focused offer, suggesting there may be opportunities for some to diversify their tenant mix.
Whilst city centres have continued to dominate this year’s LocateVenues overall ranking, Colliers has found that it is, in fact, larger town and city centres that have seen the greatest decline in scores in recent times, with the gap narrowing between in-town and out-of-town retail. Tollgate Shopping Park in Colchester saw the biggest rise up the rankings this year, out of all 25,000 venues analysed, with Solihull Retail Park making the second biggest jump, both due to the arrival of a plethora of new occupiers. Conversely, Leeds and Norwich city centres both saw the steepest decline in the rankings, attributed to the closure of a number of stores, with new occupiers yet to open.
Paddy Gamble, co-head of retail strategy & analytics at Colliers, comments: “In an ever-evolving retail landscape, the success of a venue, whether that be a major city centre or a local high street, hinges on striking the right balance of aligning price positioning with the demographic of shoppers. Landlords must understand the distinct needs of their target audience, particularly given the fact they can no longer rely as heavily on the draw of traditional large anchors such as department stores. By strategically aligning various factors, such as price, age, tourism, and F&B orientation with their demographic, retail locations will find the right blend to help them thrive, irrespective of their scale or size.”
Dominic Pozzoni, head of Colliers’ Manchester office further added: “It is fantastic to see central Manchester recognised as the UK’s No.1 retail and leisure destination. The city centre continues to evolve at a rapid pace, continually seeking to offer a diverse array of retail and leisure offerings, which in turn is attracting many new entrants from London and overseas.
“In addition, the selection of Manchester by luxury brand, Chanel, late last year, to host its prestigious annual Métiers D’Art fashion show within the trendy Northern Quarter neighbourhood, acknowledged the rich heritage of Manchester and its status as a truly global city with exceptional cultural experiences, music, and sporting events.”
