The UK’s largest grocers have seen a fall in the value of their property by nearly a fifth since 2015 as out-of-town units are sold.
According to Saving Stream, property portfolios of the country’s leading supermarkets have fallen by 17 per cent to £37.8 billion in the past two years.
Changing consumer habits have forced grocers to offload units that are out-of-town, selling them to developers to be converted into housing.
Tesco sold off 14 unwanted sites in 2010 for around £250 million for potential conversion into 10,000 residential properties.
“UK supermarkets are increasingly looking at reversing a long-term strategy of land-banking,” Saving Stream’s Liam Brooker said.
“Opportunistic purchases of sites for potential future stores were intended to provide a strategic advantage, build market presence and lock out competitors from certain areas.
”Developers could be major beneficiaries as supermarkets start to scale back their property portfolios, with smaller sites just as likely as larger development opportunities to be offloaded.”
