Redevco: Physical retail is still worth investing in

Andrew Vaughan, CEO, Redevco

Redevco’s Andrew Vaughan tells Real Asset Media how the retail investor has streamlined its portfolio to prosper in today’s rapidly changing market.

Physical retail is still worth investing in, provided three conditions are met, says Vaughan: ‘Good quality buildings in the right locations and flexibility. We fundamentally still believe in retail and with those three ingredients you are going to be okay.’

Redevco’s CEO sees the strategy continuing to evolve: ‘We’re heading in the same direction as before, we’re looking much more at mixed-use, we’re into residential, we’re starting to look at some other sectors as well.’

Mixed-use is a growing focus but Vaughan points out that cities have always had different uses: ‘A lot of our buildings are already mixed-use and always have been – shops with residential or offices above. We’ve always been extremely comfortable with this.’

For retail markets, the health crisis has been an accelerator of many of the existing trends but Vaughan still takes an optimistic view.

‘A couple of months ago it really felt that we were in the eye of the storm and at the beginning of lockdown like many people we were extremely pessimistic about how our business looked and how this year looked,’ he says.

‘But looking at where we are today we’re definitely more optimistic. The vast majority of our shops are open again, trade is picking up and there are some positive signs from footfall and from turnover.’

The full interview is available as a video or download and listen as a podcast:

You can also read the full interview in the upcoming issue of Living Retail