Shoppers are cutting back. Unless you’re shopping for a shopping centre

Falling shopper visits have not stopped major landlords placing bigger bets on retail. October’s deals and trading updates reveal where confidence is concentrating.

One response to falling shopper numbers is to tighten the purse strings. Another is to agree to spend £516 million on a shopping centre.

Landsec chose the latter. On 1 October, it announced an agreement to acquire Gateshead’s Metrocentre, with completion then expected by the end of the month. Less than two weeks later, it completed a £95 million purchase of an additional stake in Bluewater.

Meanwhile, the BRC–Sensormatic monitor, released on 9 October, showed UK retail footfall falling 2.9% year on year in September. Shopping centres suffered a sharper 3.5% decline.

If there was a memo to investors about caution, it’s clear not everyone agreed with it!

The explanation lies in the growing distance between retail’s broad averages and the performance of particular destinations. October’s announcements suggest confidence is concentrating around places that brands want to occupy and customers still have reasons to visit.

The contrast extends across the Channel. In its 22 October trading update, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield reported tenant sales growth of 4.8% and footfall growth of 2.3% across its European portfolio over the first nine months of 2026. Its European shopping-centre vacancy stood at 2.9%.

Whilst these trading figures cover different periods and portfolios, what they do show is that a weak national footfall reading can coexist with growth at major destinations.

The average is useful. It is also a fairly poor guide to which shopping centre someone should buy.

For centres outside that circle, attracting either side becomes harder.

The proposition also involves more than shops. Metrocentre’s existing retail and leisure offer, established customer base and 95% occupancy formed part of the investment case Landsec presented. The company was buying an operating destination with existing income, rather than starting with an empty site and a hopeful architectural rendering.

URW is pursuing its own selective approach. Its October update outlined an agreement to acquire the remaining half of Metropole Zličín in Prague, alongside disposals elsewhere. The company identified an opportunity to reposition the Czech centre as a Westfield destination.

|  For both owners, the announcements describe choices about particular assets. Reading them as an indiscriminate vote of confidence in every shopping centre would miss the point.

Clark pointed to events, services and offers informed by customer data as ways to give people a reason to visit. That helps explain why the discussion about successful destinations increasingly extends beyond their fashion line-up.

In research published on 10 September, Savills identified health, food and beverage, leisure and services as prospective sources of tenant demand across Europe.

A destination can therefore earn its place in several ways. It might be somewhere to complete a practical errand, meet a friend or combine shopping with lunch. And convenience belongs in that calculation too.

|  A restaurant opening may generate the publicity; finding the entrance without conducting an amateur geography expedition cannot be considered as part of the experience.

Neither point, however, proves what drove the latest sales figures. Those results establish the performance gap; explaining its precise causes requires evidence from individual destinations.

For the wider UK market, the immediate pressure remains. BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson described September as

“a sharp decline compared to last year”,

with high streets and shopping centres suffering most. The final quarter begins with retailers still having to work for every visit.

Christmas trading will test whether leading destinations can sustain their advantage as households decide where to spend. October’s cheques show where some major landlords think the winners will be.

Over the coming weeks, shoppers get to cast their votes.