Mailbox posts "strong" retail rent collections

Yet more positive news on UK retail rent collections. This time it comes from Midlands-based Mailbox REIT, which recorded a “strong” 92% collection rate for the 24 June-28 September period.

As of 27 July, Retail collections came in at 82.8% over the same period, while Food & Beverage struggled at 64.5%. The Office sector was fully paid up, it noted.

The company, which owns/operates the high-profile Mailbox shopping centre in Birmingham that has Harvey Nichols as its anchor, said the outstanding 7.4% overall is either due during the quarter as a result of agreed payment plans, or still in negotiation with tenants.

And it has collected 91.9% of total rents since the beginning of 2021. The majority of the outstanding rent arrears mainly related to F&B tenants, it noted. That’s perhaps understandable given that its retail tenants include some big global names such as Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein that are unlikely to default on rents.

Meanwhile, the company also said its properties are currently 93.2% occupied with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 13.75 years.

The company, which was the first to float on the UK’s International Property Securities Exchange (IPSX) in May, raised £25.9 million for growth plans.

Non-executive chairman Stephen Barter said: "Since listing we have made good progress with our value-enhancing asset management plans for the Mailbox”, although this did include an ongoing conversion of low-income-producing retail space into high-income-producing office space.

The positive numbers from Mailbox support the UK property sector’s wider performance with its bigger peers all witnessing a strong return to rent collections since the pandemic had hit hard while, for many, empty spaces are slowly being filled with some retailers opting to move to larger spaces.

Mailbox posts "strong" retail rent collections

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