Living above the shop is very much back in fashion as supermarkets lead the development of thousands of homes in their latest tactic to secure new sites. As a consequence, the race for market share among the UK's largest retailers is inadvertently helping London chip away at a housing shortfall that equates to at least 32,000 new homes per year.
Tesco’s huge projects in Woolwich, Highams Green and Streatham are merely paving the way for a wave of supermarket-led home building projects which will flood across the south-east. More than 4,500 homes are being planned by the big five grocers in London alone over the coming years, according to property advisor CBRE, while construction market analyst Glenigan estimates supermarkets will be laying the foundations for more than 2,100 homes in 2014. After completing the development, Tesco remain the main tenant and occupier for years, so they have an added incentive to make sure these are developments of the highest quality.
In other words, a major innovative move, meeting a real shopper need…
The initiative has echoes of 7-11 practice in Tokyo of taking the ground floor area of high-rise apartment buildings, just to be close to convenience customers. In fact, there the idea has been so successful that 7-11 is referred to as ‘The Refrigerator’ by tenants living above the store in typically small Tokyo apartments where space is a premium. In other words, tenants can run stock levels of milk in their apartment to a minimum, knowing that top-up is merely a lift-run away…
On a personal note, having lived above my parents’ Mom ‘n Pop store for most of my childhood, nothing beats the convenience of nipping downstairs for an impulse refill when the need arises…
A no-brainer for the mults…
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