Vickery Holman has recently been asked to carry out valuations of retail properties around Cornwall. Our team was instructed to value several retail properties within the popular town of Newquay, located on Cornwall’s North Coast. Newquay benefits from a popular tourist season in the summer months, much like many other Cornish towns throughout the county, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused Cornwall to experience what could be perceived as two extremes this year, from bust to boom. The nationwide lockdown meant that the summer tourism industry was set to be a write off for summer 2020. Fortunately for Cornwall, once government restrictions had been lifted and it was announced that visiting certain countries would mean you could potentially have to self-isolate for 2 weeks, Cornwall saw a surge in visitors and holidaymakers from all over the UK.
Valuations of Retail Properties
Vickery Holman has a wide range of valuation knowledge across the region and this can be demonstrated by the number of instructions for valuations of retail properties we are receiving. For example, we have just been asked to value a large retail premises within Newquay that had been recently been sold subject to contract. The valuation was requested on a vacant basis. As well as providing our opinion of value, we were also able to provide advice on the new permitted development rights that came into play on 1st September 2020.
Once completing that instruction, Vickery Holman were instructed to provide a further two valuations on other retail premises in Newquay, both with residential accommodation above, providing an interesting discussion on the decline in demand for retail but the increase in demand for residential properties, especially with more of the general UK population working from home.
With the above in mind, it will also be interesting to see the impact of Covid-19 upon other areas of the market in months to come. Will the novelty of people being able to go back onto the High Street to shop, after being forced to shop from their sofas over past months change the perception of retail property on the High Street? Perhaps not, although Covid-19 has definitely tested the resilience of different areas of the property market in its own way, with retail being one of the worst-hit. To read more about our Valuations services, please click here
