Wimbledon Village has been named as one of Britain’s best performing retail centres, placing third out of 1,000 shopping locations.
Strategic retail property consultancy, Harper Dennis Hobbs (HDH), looked at several factors including vacancy rates, resident’s movement and suitability to local consumer demands.
The HDH Vitality ranking saw Wimbledon Village climb one position since 2021 and four positions since 2019.
Beaconsfield, a Buckinghamshire market town, topped the list for a second year running but was ranked at number 64 pre-pandemic in 2019.
Research suggests that consumer shopping habits have become more localised during Covid restrictions.
Kingston Upon Thames came fourth in the list, up 16 places since 2019 and was the only other London Borough to make the top 10.
Andy Metherell, head of retail consultancy at HDH, explained: “The latest HDH Vitality Ranking reflects the realities that consumers and occupiers have had to face over the past year, and that continues into 2022.
“The Delta variant’s effect on public health and the uncertainty around the impact of the Omicron variant resulted in the continuation of restrictions on consumer movement and occupier trading, leading to our rankings being comparable to the listing in 2021.”
The ranking’s top 20 is still dominated by smaller commuter towns that are still benefitting from people local.
HDH Vitality said that families that have relocated from larger cities because of more flexible working may also be contributing to this.
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