Retail spend in London continues rising as visitor numbers soar

International overnight visitors to London has soared this year to around 18.8 million, according to Savills ‘World and London’ report and they have contributed more than 24 billion dollars in retail spend.

This rise in spend has helped London attract increasing numbers of international brands to the city, states Savills, adding that since 2012, more than 98 international brands have opened in London locating across 23 different retail areas.

The report also reveals that the biggest tourist spenders are from UAE and China, with an average spend per transaction typically over 1,000 pounds, adding that China is now the largest consumer market of luxury products globally.

However, Chinese tourists currently only account for 2.6 percent of overseas spend in the UK, totally 559 million pounds, which is why Visit Britain is hoping that improvements can be made to the visa process, as it predicts that Chinese tourist numbers could increase from 233,000 to 650,000 by 2020 with spending power of almost 1.1 billion pounds.

In turn this increase in tourists from Asia would help attract further international brands, the retail estate agency states from Asia Pacific and South America.

Peter Thomas, director of Savills central London retail, said: “Constraints on traditional key pitches such as Bond Street and Oxford Street has broadened the interest on a variety of retail destinations available to occupiers and shoppers.

“Currently top choice locations are Westfield (West London and Stratford), Covent Garden and Regent Street but Kings Road, Marylebone High Street and Spitalfields are all seeing major interest from new entrants.”

Inline with tourist spend increasing, London has also seen the rate of international investors into its retail property intensify. According to Savills data, 59.2 percent of total spend in London’s retail property market was by overseas investors equating to 1.5 billion pounds.

Marie Hickey, director of Savills research team, added: “The trend for occupiers purchasing stores, in part as a way of future proofing themselves against future rental uplifts, appears to be relatively unique to London. This is particularly prevalent on Bond Street where we have seen prime Zone A rise by 20.8% per annum over the last three years.”