Retail space owner only collects twofifths of rents
Hammerson, the retail property giant that owns Aberdeen’s Union Square centre, has revealed it collected just 41 per cent of rent from its tenants as lockdown restrictions hit income.
Bosses at the company, which is also joint owner of the Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow, said of the £61.5 million rent due by the end of 2020 just £19.8m was collected.
Some £12.9m has been deferred or not yet due, with £28.8m outstanding. The 41 per cent figure is lower than the 63 per cent collected in the second quarter of 2020 at the previous peak of the pandemic.
Data revealed in Ireland, where the company owns a handful of shopping centres, showed that rent collection was just 31 per cent, the UK was 41 per cent and France was 46 per cent.
In the Uk, flagship sites, typically found in city centres, were particularly hard-hit, with just 36 per cent of rent collected – although retail parks, with a greater number of essential stores, had a better time with 64 per cent paid. Among Hammerson’s other major retail assets are Birmingham’s Bullring and London’s Brent Cross.
The firm pointed to encouraging boosts in customer numbers during the Christmas trading period from November 30 to December 24 as the second English national lockdown ended and the tiering systems allowed for more stores to reopen.
However, city centre sites continued to struggle to return to levels seen in prepandemic times, with footfall hitting just 60 per cent of the previous year.