Securing Small Retail Units Effectively And Economically With ShopShield
It’s not just stores with familiar brand names that have disappeared from our high streets over the difficult past year; countless small, independent shops have also had to shut their doors. Business districts in our city centres are still unnaturally quiet and nothing like the bustling streets they were before as office workers continue to work from home, part or even full-time. Whether we ever return to our pre-Covid existence, no one knows, but until what feels like normal life resumes and people aren’t concerned to socialise, shop or be close to strangers without a mask, or worrying about being ‘pinged’, we have to deal with the here and now.
That, unfortunately, means countless little businesses that relied on office workers or commuters for their trade are in peril. The result is financial loss and an increasing number of vacant retail units up for sale or to let. And it’s not just the tenants who are suffering; beleaguered landlords in turn have their own financial commitments and all this is painting a depressing picture up and down the country.
A typical example of what is going on was a shop we secured just recently in Broadstairs, Kent. A small boutique in a small parade, it had been shut for months in the formerly thriving seaside town; however, bereft of visitors and tourists for too long, the tenants had cut their losses and given up. The landlord contacted us to secure the empty shop after the property was abandoned at short notice. His main concern was the tenants re-entering the shop as they didn’t hand the keys back upon disappearing and could have easily passed them on to someone else. Unwanted post was building-up inside the main door and the place was a mess, a real temptation to thieves, never mind a fire hazard. It was easy for Clearway to do a thorough risk assessment and within 24 hrs the place was secure, front and back, and appropriately protected, leaving a relieved landlord.
With the future of retail still uncertain, and changes in the planning laws this summer making it easier to convert commercial buildings to residential use, many property owners with vacant retail units have given up chasing tenants and decided to re-purpose their portfolios while there is such a demand for residential accommodation and profit to be made another way. And where they own retail units with existing tenants, they are deciding not to renew leases, so those tenants have to move out and relocate in order for their entire building to be re-developed.
Whichever way you look at the situation, it means there is a lot of retail property standing vacant while either waiting for new tenants or to be re-purposed. And the minute a business closes down, the vacant unit becomes vulnerable to all kinds of trouble: everything from squatters or thieves to just mindless vandalism. It only takes a bare minute for some joker to push a firework through the letterbox and all the junk mail and papers on the doormat will go up in flames, shortly followed by the rest of the shop. But it’s no joke.
Securing small shops is easy for vacant property specialists, Clearway, and their ShopShield package is the simple, effective and straightforward solution that ticks all the necessary boxes for a fixed price. Ideal for premises that hope to be quickly re-let or for hard-pressed property owners in for the long haul. Whatever is needed, Clearway can assess, advise and provide.
Deterrent is the word, affordability the key, and peace of mind the result, whatever size and type of building you need securing. Why wait? One call to the experts and we can solve your empty retail property security problem straight away.
https://www.clearway.co.uk/shopshield
Tel: 01322 479652
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