Retail rents healthier

A series of new lettings show an improvement in retail rents since they almost halved with the start of the credit crunch in 2008, it said.

Retail rents in prime areas of the city soared to £300 sq ft in the last property boom years of 2006 and 2007 but key deals on Briggate and Commercial Street in 2008 and 2009 achieved a far lower rate.

However, Jonathan Newns, northern head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s in-town retail team, said recent new lettings, including French beauty brand, L’Occitane, which opened at the former Kookai unit on Briggate and achieved more than £270 per sq ft, show that the Leeds market is recovering.