Commercial property landlords’ rental collection, which dropped sharply during the pandemic, is almost back to where it was before the first lockdown.
Landlords received 77 per cent of the rent owed to them on the day it was due last month, according to data from Remit Consulting, which tracked 125,000 leases and £2 billion in rent demands.
A week after the due date, 88 per cent of rent demanded had been paid. In 2019, before the pandemic, landlords received just over 90 per cent of rent owed within seven days.
At the height of the lockdowns, barely a third of rents were being collected on time amid a moratorium that protected corporate renters, many of which had to shut for weeks, from being evicted if they did not pay their rent.
The scheme was criticised by landlords, who felt that even well-capitalised businesses were using the legislation as a “licence to not pay rent”.
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Although rent collection has been improving, even at the June quarter day this summer only 65 per cent of all rents were paid on time.
“The rent collection rate at the start of the current quarter is the most robust since 2019,” Elijah Lewis, head of research at Remit Consulting, said.
Retailers were the best for paying their rents on time last month, with 77 per cent of retail rents collected on the due date. That probably reflects the cheaper rents that retailers have been able to negotiate in recent years.
Lewis said landlords would be encouraged by “what appears to be a sustained improvement in rent payments by high street businesses”.
The same percentage of office rents were collected on time, while 74 per cent of leisure tenants such as cinemas, bowling alleys and theatres had paid by the due date. Industrial tenants were the worst payers, with 73 per cent of their rents paid on time. After a week, 85 per cent of warehouse renters had paid up, the highest total since the start of the pandemic.
