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A new report commissioned by England's greatest real estate expert Peter Wetherell explains how Mount Street in Mayfair has been regenerated as a retail destination. The rents paid today are quite staggering: Lowe pays £175,000 a year for 3,320 sq ft, for example. But the rules can be applied anywhere. The most important thing is that landlords and retailers and public authorities need to work together. Wetherell recalls that he founded the Mount Street Association at the request of the Duke of Westminster after the duke had "walked from the old estate office in Davies Street to dine at Harry's in South Audley Street and had counted 19 empty shops". Mount Street connects Berkeley Square with Hyde Park and you may think such a location guarantees success. But it does not. It used to be a "street you cut through" to get from A to B. The triggers behind its transformation were the arrival of an anchor retail tenant in the shape of US fashion desig...

The value of retail outlets sold by Christie + Co rose by 2.1 per cent in 2010, with the number of transactions it completed up by 24 per cent (excluding its sale of 300 outlets from the failed First Quench off licence chain). As business agents, Christie + Co do not focus on high street shops so its estimates are a good proxy for owners of c-stores and CTNs, suggesting that prices are firming up again after two years of falls. The company says valuations are supported by the favourable market conditions for independent traders, despite the move of multiple stores into the channel. Managing director Chris Day is confident that the banks will be supportive of the property sector as a whole. However, for independent operators this is unlikely to translate into easier access to finance. "The independent shopkeeper is finding it difficult to get funding," Tony Evans, head of retail, said at the launch of its Business Outlook 2011 ...

For owners of independent local shops and operators of regional groups, the property benchmark provided by Christie + Co, the business agents, is a good barometer of their asset values, which are now some 16 per cent below the peak achieved in the last quarter of 2007. In presenting the figure, Chris Day, the company's managing director, suggested that the low point had now been reached. Demand for good retail sites remains strong, as is shown by the company's handling of the First Quench administration. It was retained to market 1,200 sites before Christmas and asked for best and final offers, of which it received more than 3,000. Head of retail Tony Evans reported last week that more than 650 sales had been agreed, mostly to independent operators. "The interest from the independent sector has been fantastic," Mr Evans said. The better sites attracted lots of offers, the best receiving more than 30. Looking into 2010, Mr Evans is optimistic about prospects for indepe...