The end of most Covid-19 restrictions looks nailed on for July 19. Unfortunately for commercial property owners, this does not include the end of a ban on evicting tenants. For big players like the real estate investment trust Hammerson, which does not have time on its hands, this is the day of reckoning that never seems to arrive.
Hammerson, whose vast portfolio of retail property includes Birmingham’s Bullring shopping complex and the designer discount outlet Bicester Village in Oxfordshire, has been forced to sell assets to boost cash resources and fend off breaches to its debt covenants.
The company has found itself under financial pressure as enforced store closures during lockdown have hastened a decline in rental income and property values, which were already
