Retail rents are falling fastest in the north-west of England, according to the latest Colliers Midsummer Retail report.
A key indicator of high street health, shop rents in the region have dropped by 5.5 per cent in the last 12 months. And whereas rates have dropped by 15% across the UK since 2008, the north-west has registered an 18% fall.
The average retail rent in the region is now £88 per sq ft, compared to £108 per sq ft before the global financial crisis hit.
Tom Cullen, director of retail at Colliers, said that reduced consumer spending, excessive competition and retail over-development was fuelling the downward trajectory.
Dissecting the region further, Southport, Bootle and Birkenhead performed particularly badly for commercial property owners in the past five years. Since 2008, average retail rents fell by 41.2 per cent, 28.6 per cent and 27.3 per cent in the three towns respectively.
Liverpool high-street property also suffered, posting a 17.2 per cent decline over the same period. Vacancy rates at major shopping developments like Liverpool One and the Trafford Centre stand between two and five per cent.
Colliers noted growing polarisation between vacancy rates at such prime locations and less prestigious, lower-footfall locations where vacancy rates were reaching 17 per cent.
Cullen urged the government to reconsider its decision to postpone the revaluation of business rates from 2015 to 2017 given the high street’s ongoing travails.
“The decision of [the] government to delay the rates revaluation has left a massive burden on those high streets where decline has been the greatest," he said.