Praxis has expanded its investment in retail with the acquisition of a shopping centre in the north east of England.

Praxis said it bought Blaydon Shopping Centre near Newcastle for £30m (€34.1m), taking the UK regional property firm’s investment in retail to £50m in the last 12 months. It also increases the company’s total number of schemes to eight.

The asset comprises the entirety of the retail provision for the Newcastle suburb, the 120,000sqft Blaydon scheme is anchored by a 70,000sqft Morrison’s supermarket and incorporates the public library and medical centre.

James Hewitt, the investment manager at Praxis Capital, said: “We’ve been

looking to increase our retail allocation since the backend of 2016, but it has taken time for the market to reprice itself. We are realistic about retail fundamentals and spend a lot of time interrogating the detail when underwriting individual schemes, but we don’t believe that all retail is in terminal decline.

“We stand ready to invest further as and when we can find the right centres, in the right location, at the right price, albeit there are still a lot of sellers in denial about the value of these assets, so patience is the key.”

Topics