{"id":8675,"date":"2017-01-28T18:41:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-28T18:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/?p=8675"},"modified":"2020-11-05T19:12:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T19:12:11","slug":"retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Retail property saw another year of improvement in 2016 as prime vacancy in Belfast dropped to its lowest level since our research began five years ago in 2012, with the city going from having one in five shops vacant in 2014 to one in 10 shops vacant last year.<\/p>\n<p>Lisney has insisted the \u201cfundamentals of the local commercial property market remained strong across all sectors\u201d and that the market is on a \u201csolid footing\u201d going forward, despite investment levels having dropped by almost 50% in 2016 \u2013 from 2015\u2019s five-year high of \u00a3420m to \u00a3213m \u2013 amidst ongoing political uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Launching its 2016 Northern Ireland Commercial Property Report \u2013 the most comprehensive and long-established study of the commercial property market in Northern Ireland across the investment, retail, office and industrial sectors \u2013 Lisney revealed investment volumes of \u00a340m for the final quarter of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>While office take-up more than doubled and owner occupiers continued their dominance in the industrial sector, uncertainty throughout 2016 hampered the investment market in Q4, as in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings of the report included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Investment volumes dipped almost 50% in 2016, from 2015\u2019s five-year high of \u00a3420m to \u00a3213m<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Office take-up more than doubled in 2016 to a five-year high of 535,000 sq ft, and rents rose by an unexpected 25%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The retail sector expanded at its fastest rate since 2002, with prime vacancy dropping to 10.5% in 2016 \u2013 the lowest level since Lisney started doing its Retail Vacancy Survey in 2011<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Prime Belfast city centre retail rents are now trending at \u00a3125 per sq ft (Zone A)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Industrial vacancy rates dropped by 25% in 2016 on the previous year, with an increase in take-up of 12.5% in the same period<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Launching the report, Declan Flynn, Managing Director of Lisney Northern Ireland, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvestment volumes of \u00a340m for the final quarter of 2016 go some way towards demonstrating the prevailing challenges currently facing the investment sector, such as the triggering of Article 50, the local political situation and the potentially more protectionist agenda coming out of the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, despite the political uncertainty, the market has remained relatively robust in a number of areas. We have seen the return of the UK pension funds to the province, acquiring the DSG investment at Sprucefield, which is a welcome sign that they are comfortable with the longer-term sustainability and resilience of our market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUncertainty at a local and national level will continue to stall investment decisions, but our fundamentals remain strong in all sectors. The market is on a solid footing and, with low interest rates, commercial property remains an attractive proposition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs expected, we saw another year of improvement across the retail sector. Prime vacancy in Belfast dropped to its lowest level since we started our research, with the city going from having one in five shops vacant in 2014 to one in 10 shops vacant last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese falling vacancy rates have placed upwards pressure on rents, with prime city centre pitches now trending at \u00a3125 per sq ft (Zone A), while the overall retail story has been further buoyed by a devalued pound, encouraging shoppers from the Republic to venture north.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe retail outlook for 2017 is positive, with continued demand for prime space and a number of new retail developments, such as Turkington\u2019s Laganbank scheme in Lisburn and Parker Green\u2019s extension to the Quays in Newry, coming on stream. Prime rents look set to continue rising, with vacancy rates continuing to reduce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amongst the most significant commercial property transactions during the final quarter of 2016 was the purchase of Lisnagelvin Shopping Centre by Cordatus Property Trust on behalf of CBRE Global Investment Partners for \u00a314.73m, and the purchase of the DSG investment at Sprucefield by Aberdeen Asset Management.<\/p>\n<p>Although take-up of office space throughout 2016 was constrained by a lack of high quality stock, quarter four of 2016 reached more encouraging levels of 225,000 sq ft, bringing the total for the year to 535,000 sq ft. Notably, almost half of the space taken up within the quarter relates to the redeveloped Clarendon House, in which Belfast City Council will occupy 100,000 sq ft.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the office market and industrial sector, Declan continued:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe prospect of office development continues to strengthen, with planning consent recently renewed on the Orby Developments-owned site on Belfast\u2019s Chichester Street, which has the potential to offer 100,000 sq ft office space, with other planning approvals including Kilmona\u2019s East Bridge Street and McAleer &amp; Rushe\u2019s Bedford Square.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough this is positive news, delivery timescales are likely to run from 2018 onwards, so refurbishment schemes are likely to plug the short-term supply gap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the industrial sector, lack of supply, particularly for larger space over 50,000 sq ft, remains a concern. In certain areas, owner occupiers are paying a premium for suitable space as the demand is outstripping the supply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemand for space less than 20,000 sq ft remains strong, however design and build projects will become increasingly central in meeting the requirements of larger occupiers and specific requirements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a number of active occupiers who have various specific requirements and they are now looking at design and build options. A potential headache also looms in the form of the measures proposed in the \u2018Rates Rethink\u2019 document which has been issued for consultation by the Department of Finance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lisney\u2019s latest report on the Northern Ireland commercial property market can be viewed in full here: <a href=\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/research-report\/northern-ireland-commercial-update-q4-2016-outlook-2017\/\">https:\/\/www.lisney.com\/research\/publications-ni\/973-northern-ireland-commercial-update-q4-2016-outlook-2017<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retail property saw another year of improvement in 2016 as prime vacancy in Belfast dropped to its lowest level since our research began five years ago in 2012, with the city going from having one in five shops vacant in 2014 to one in 10 shops vacant last year. Lisney has insisted the \u201cfundamentals of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Retail property saw another year of improvement in 2016 as prime vacancy in Belfast dropped to its lowest level since our research began five years ago in 2012, with the city going from having one in five shops vacant in 2014 to one in 10 shops vacant last year. Lisney has insisted the \u201cfundamentals of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belfast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/default\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lisney\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LisneyBelfast\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LisneyBelfast\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lisney\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"lisney\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/d32f8cbc73817ab645de5cd89e7f8d69\"},\"headline\":\"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\"},\"wordCount\":887,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\",\"name\":\"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/\",\"name\":\"Lisney Belfast\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Lisney Belfast\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/Lisney-CRE-Logo-PRT-Red-Box-RGB.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/Lisney-CRE-Logo-PRT-Red-Box-RGB.jpg\",\"width\":1182,\"height\":1182,\"caption\":\"Lisney Belfast\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/LisneyBelfast\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisneyni\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/d32f8cbc73817ab645de5cd89e7f8d69\",\"name\":\"lisney\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f37c3bb700a9003d87337dda32344f13d57619eb8039a17801a72af367b98a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f37c3bb700a9003d87337dda32344f13d57619eb8039a17801a72af367b98a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"lisney\"},\"description\":\"The team behind Ireland's most valued property research, for decades.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/lisney.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/author\/lisney\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast","og_description":"Retail property saw another year of improvement in 2016 as prime vacancy in Belfast dropped to its lowest level since our research began five years ago in 2012, with the city going from having one in five shops vacant in 2014 to one in 10 shops vacant last year. Lisney has insisted the \u201cfundamentals of [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/","og_site_name":"Belfast","article_published_time":"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"default","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"lisney","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@LisneyBelfast","twitter_site":"@LisneyBelfast","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"lisney","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/"},"author":{"name":"lisney","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/d32f8cbc73817ab645de5cd89e7f8d69"},"headline":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016","datePublished":"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/"},"wordCount":887,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization"},"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/","url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/","name":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016 - Belfast","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-28T18:41:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-05T19:12:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/retail-proves-to-be-the-real-winner-of-2016\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Retail Proves To Be The Real Winner Of 2016"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/","name":"Lisney Belfast","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#organization","name":"Lisney Belfast","url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/Lisney-CRE-Logo-PRT-Red-Box-RGB.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/04\/Lisney-CRE-Logo-PRT-Red-Box-RGB.jpg","width":1182,"height":1182,"caption":"Lisney Belfast"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/LisneyBelfast","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisneyni\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/d32f8cbc73817ab645de5cd89e7f8d69","name":"lisney","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f37c3bb700a9003d87337dda32344f13d57619eb8039a17801a72af367b98a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f37c3bb700a9003d87337dda32344f13d57619eb8039a17801a72af367b98a4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"lisney"},"description":"The team behind Ireland's most valued property research, for decades.","sameAs":["https:\/\/lisney.com"],"url":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/author\/lisney\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8783,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions\/8783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisney.com\/belfast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}