The deal sizes ranged for areas as low as 400 sq ft and went all the way up to 35,000 sq ft. Some apparel brands and even large format stores like Pantaloons, Westside, Zudio, Reliance Trends and Max (typically anchor tenants in malls) are now getting more serious about their high streets' presence, Anarock said in a statement.

Of the categories which closed high street leases, apparel had the largest share of deals with an over 23 per cent share, followed by F&B with a 15 per cent share, and jewellery with 12 per cent.

Hypermarkets and supermarkets mostly leased large high street spaces in smaller towns and cities. The top cities where leading brands expanded in this period include Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurgaon. The prominent tier 2 & 3 cities include Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Patiala, and smaller towns in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior).

“High street markets have been doing very well in these post-pandemic times and we are seeing many retail brands eye these locations as part of their expansion strategy. Well-capitalised retailers with established business models are using their competitive advantage to negotiate good deals to expand their footprint and gain a larger market share,” said Pankaj Renjhen, COO & Joint MD, Anarock Retail.

“High streets offer a good opportunity with attractively low start-up time, lower cost of operations and less dependency on immediate adjacencies. High streets already have a considerable base of footfall traffic,” Renjhen added.

In metro cities, some retailers are also willing to take well-located, road-facing spaces within good catchments rather than sign up at expensive high streets, according to Anarock report.

In another major post-pandemic trend, prominent hypermarket and supermarket brands are penetrating deeper into tier 2, 3 and 4 cities. Many of these smaller towns and cities offer high revenue-growth potential for these brands.

"There is aggressive demand from retailers, particularly large corporate retail chains, especially in high streets of tier 2, 3 and select tier 4 cities. This demand is backed by the increasing resilience of non-metro customers. With lack of quality retail centres in most of these cities, demand has got focused on high streets. Additionally, the cost of operations in tier 2 and 3 city high streets is more competitive for retailers while for consumers, the familiarity and location convenience of high street retail adds up well," the report said.

"Going forward, with limited quality retail stock coming up and in smaller cities' convenience as a key parameter, high streets are a viable solution for retailers to bridge the gap," according to Renjhen. "Except in a few large cities, large-sized retail centres will be difficult to sustain as the pandemic has shrunk the retailer category – both in terms of the number of players and store sizes."

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)