Property use diversity and spatial accessibility within urban retailing centres: drivers of retail rents

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between use and investor diversity, spatial accessibility, and high street retail rents. Spatial quantitative analysis of the high street retail sector remains an underdeveloped area so this paper seeks to bridge this gap and contribute to the debate on the adaptability of urban retailing centres by adopting a spatial fixed-effects panel modelling approach. The empirical findings reveal that diversity and richness in property use tend to have a significant positive impact on retail rental values. The influence of ownership richness on rents is positive implying that rents tend to be higher on streets where there is a greater range in the type of landlords. Walkability, as a measure of spatial accessibility, is found to have a negative relationship with market rents. This is perhaps surprising as it had been expected that the most walkable streets in retailing centres to be the most connected and have the highest rents. This contrary finding may be due to large developments interrupting the street network and restricting the choice and movement of pedestrians. Location on the prime retail pitch has a significant positive relationship with shop rents, whereas proximity to transportation nodes has a less consistent influence.