British Land continues to back retail parks as its desired commercial retail format, buying Orbital Retail Park in Cannock, Staffordshire, for £27.6 million from Clearbell Property Partners.

British Land will now own and operated the 123,215 sq ft park, which comprises 11 stores across two terraces.

Key tenants currently include M&S and Boots while supermarket Aldi and Pure Gym also recently joined the line-up. Reports say the UK property giant is also in discussions with a key retailer to take over the current Homebase, whose owner collapsed into administration last month.

And with the park’s rental value having increased this year to £20 per sq ft from £17 per sq ft, Kelly Cleveland, head of real estate and investment at British Land, said: “This latest acquisition further solidifies our market-leading position in retail parks as we continue to deliver on our strategy of recycling capital into this sub-sector.

“Retail parks remain the preferred physical retail format for an increasing number of retailers due to their affordability, adaptability and accessibility. We are nearly fully let across our parks portfolio and continue to see strong competition for this type of space.”

In its half-year trading statement last month British Land said retail parks now account for almost a third of its property portfolio, saying it was “pleased” with the sector’s performance as both its operational and financial momentum continues. Underlying profit, for instance, continued to grow (albeit up just 1%) to £143 million.

Since 2021, its exposure to the sector has risen from 15% of the portfolio to 32% and will rise again after the Cannock purchase. It said the realignment has culminated in 3% rental growth over the recent half-year period and is guiding for 3-5% rental growth over the full year.