Shopping Centre Portfolio – Performance Snapshot Q1 2017
“Footfall across the Bannon portfolio was +0.65% in Q1 2017”
Our last quarterly update (Q4 2016) showed a strong close to 2016 for the Bannon Shopping Centre Portfolio with total footfall growth of 0.85% and total turnover growth of 3.45%. The portfolio consists of regional shopping centres in various locations across the country.
The first quarter of 2017 saw footfall growth of 0.65% but sales were back by 2.95% versus the same period in 2016. The trend improved in April with a month on month increase in sales of 3.54% bringing the yearly running total (Jan – Apr) back to -1.19%.
The annual movement of Easter each year can have quite an impact on monthly totals and this was certainly the case during the first quarter of 2017. Easter Sunday fell on the 16th April 2017 versus 27th March 2016, thus April sales (Q2 2017) benefited significantly from this year’s Easter break.
Vacancy rates across the portfolio continued to fall during Q1 2017 and this is expected to continue with several very significant deals in the pipeline for Q2 and Q3 2017.
Ray Geraghty, Divisional Director within the Property Management Department at Bannon noted that despite a string of strong national economic indicators that consumers were cautious during Q1 2017 and this impacted on sales across the board. Ray believes that the outlook for 2017 remains positive, particularly from a letting perspective and that the occupancy rate across the portfolio is nearing the holy grail of 100%.
At present Bannon manage over 6 million square feet of retail assets with a total annual rent and service charge income of €100 million and an annual footfall of 85 million. The portfolio is made up of a range of retail assets, from large regional shopping centres to small local neighbourhood schemes.
“Tentativeness during Q1 2017 not impacting on retailer enquiries and vacancy rates continue to drop”
