U.K. second-quarter rental collections held up

Several thousand U.K. tenants show that despite gloomy predictions, second-quarter rental collections held up well in many sectors compared with March, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

By June 21 — 21 days following the due date for commercial rent collection on June 24 — the real estate services firm had collected 69.1 percent of rents on behalf of its clients. That’s down by less than 1 percentage point than the March Day 21 figure, when 69.5 percent of rents had been collected by this point, just weeks after the United Kingdom went into lockdown — a result that far exceeds initial expectations. The firm estimates that around a third of companies have sought help from landlords since the COVID-19 epidemic took hold by way of rent holiday, concession or renegotiation.

At Day 21, the highest proportion of rent received is from tenants in the offices sector at 81 percent — a figure that is 4 percentage points higher than the same time for March. For indu