London retail holds up - commercial mortgages

22 April 2008

In news which suggests those looking for commercial mortgages in the retail property sector would be better off in the capital than elsewhere, new figures have shown London is easily outperforming the UK as a whole.

Statistics from the latest survey of the London Retail Consortium show that in March the retail sales in central London were two per cent higher than a year earlier, the Retail Bulletin reports.

While this was not as good as the 10.8 per cent figure for March 2007 it still represents a better picture than the UK average for the month, which was a year-on-year fall of 1.6 per cent.

Director general of the British Retail Consortium Stephen Robertson said: "London''s retailers continue to resist the effects of the more severe slowdown affecting the rest of the UK."

He said this was despite the poor Easter weather and reflected the fact that the high value of the euro against sterling attracted many continental shoppers across the Channel.

In contrast, there were less American spenders due to the weakness of the dollar.

West End shopping was also boosted by higher than normal amounts of spending by visitors from Russia and the Middle East, the BBC reports.