Dublin shopping centres reveal cost of lockdown

THE OWNER of three Dublin shopping centres has announced they need to find almost €1 billion to make up for Covid losses.

Hammerson, a UK property group who own Dundrum Town Centre, the Ilac Centre and Pavilions in Swords claim they will need to raise nearly £900 million after their rental income collapsed due to the coronavirus.

The company announced in their Half Year Report that rental income from their three Dublin shopping centres for the first half of 2020 was £14.9 million (€16.5 million), £3.6 million (€4 million) lower than in 2019.

“Apart from essential retail, our tenants had to close from 25 March until 15 June, with the latter date having been brought forward from 10 August at short notice by the Irish government,” the report said.

“As with the UK, rent collection levels are significantly lower than usual, with less than half of Q2 rent collected by 30 June compared with 93% of Q1 rent.

“Collection rates have improved during July.

“Footfall for the first half of 2020 was down 40%, predominantly due to the closure of most stores during the lockdown period.

“After the centres reopened on 15 June, footfall recovered better than in the UK and averaged 28% lower than 2019 during the second half of June and 19% lower in July.”

The report also notes that few of Hammerson’s Irish tenants here have gone through company restructuring, compared to its British business.

“This is due to the different legal environment, which makes undertaking a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) more challenging” the report said.

Hammerson’s Irish portfolio of Dundrum Town Centre, the Ilac Centre and Pavilions in Swords, represents 11% of the group’s portfolio by value and Dundrum accounts for approximately three-quarters of this value.

Overall, the group recorded annual footfall of 45 million in 2019 with 310 tenants in their Irish shopping centres.