Something’s happening somewhere…

“Our town has a third fewer vacancies than it did in the spring.”

“Wow. Actually, so has ours…!”

What about yours…? 🤔

Just two towns reflecting on how the numbers have changed between the dates of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy walk-see in late spring and a summer return visit.

Here are those numbers.

🧮 “11 of the initial ‘35’ (18.4%) visibly vacant are now listed as let, 4 more as ‘under offer’ and one other not currently being marketed due to landlord development or refurb works.”

📉”10 of the initial ‘29’ (16.3%) visibly vacant are now listed as let, 2 more as ‘under offer’ and a further 4 not currently being marketed due to landlord development or refurb works.”

As I say just two towns – but this is not the first time we’ve seen a very different picture after the ‘audit, engage’ stage of our approach to tackling #highstreet empty shops issues.

🔮 And it changes things. With a vacancy rate approaching 20% you might be thinking demolish, re-purpose, convert to resi, or worrying about more of your town centre’s traders leaving at lease expiry.

Instead the focus might be trying to add to the mix when it comes to #property lettings in the remaining empties, checking whether there’s un- and under used space on upper floors you could productively bring back, splitting larger units to better fit interest from #indie businesses, maybe even building new ones.

As I always say, it’s challenging, in some places especially so, but something’s happening somewhere. The numbers are telling us that…!

What do yours say…?