New Bond Street rents no longer Europe's highest as Milan tops the list

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 23, 2022

New Bond Street in the heart of London's West End has lost its crown as the most expensive shopping street in Europe as far as rents are concerned. That dubious honour now goes to Milan’s Via Monte Napoleone, according to new analysis by property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

It said that the cost of renting store space on New Bond Street is now ‘only’ $1,361/ (£1,150) per square foot a year, with rents, having fallen by 7% in 2022. 

New Bond Street seems to have been affected by the wider trend in which UK landlords have been forced to lower their rents in order to attract tenants. Lower rents could also be linked to the end of tax-free shopping for tourists with fewer affluent shoppers coming to London since its abolition.

But it's clear that the street is doing better than many other shopping hubs and rents there are down only 11% since the start of the pandemic. That compares to many parts of the country that aren't focused on luxury retail, where rents have fallen sharply.

As mentioned, Milan now contains the most expensive European shopping street with retail rents on Via Monte Napoleone being up 7% this year at $1,380 a square foot. 

New Bond Street remains in second place and is still more expensive than the Champs Élysées in Paris, where rents have fallen 4% this year to $1,050 per square foot.

As for the most expensive shopping street in the world on the rental front, this remains the upper section of Fifth Avenue in New York. Its rents have risen 7% in 2022 and are an eye-watering $2,000 per square foot. 

In second place globally is Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui where rents are $1,436 a square foot. 

Despite the falling rental prices in some parts of Europe, Cushman hailed the fact that high-quality retail real estate has remained robust overall, despite having faced huge stresses in recent years.