By Mark Minchell, Director at Flude
Flude are a regional firm of property consultants and surveyors with offices in Brighton, Portsmouth and Chichester. I head up the Chichester office and have worked in or around Chichester for about 20 years.
The Chichester retail market continues to show resilience in its occupation performance indicators.
The vacancy rate stands at 2.7%, reflecting a 0.5 percentage point improvement year-on-year. This low vacancy level continues to be underpinned by steady occupier demand, particularly from established national retailers and experiential operators, reinforcing the town’s role as a key convenience and comparison retail destination within the region.
Rental levels in Chichester show positive growth of 3.5% over the past three years. Both Prime Zone A as well as Secondary Zone A headline rents in Chichester have increased, reflecting improving depth of demand in prime and beyond prime pitch locations.
Occupier demand has been evidenced by a number of notable lettings during 2025 including Joules who have returned to the city and secured premises at 88 East Street, reinforcing the strength of the town’s fashion offer. ProCook has taken a new unit on North Street, further enhancing Chichester’s homewares and lifestyle provision. The leisure and hospitality sector has also been active, with the opening of Rapscallions at 30 Southgate. In the premium retail segment, Jo Malone has opened at 16 South Street in the past 14 months, while 24 South Street is currently under offer to another returning retailer to the city.
Overall, the breadth of recent occupier activity points to sustained confidence in Chichester as a retail location, supported by low vacancy, stable rental growth and an improving mix of national and experiential occupiers.
I am hopeful that 2026 will show improvement on 2025 but there are still headwinds that need to be overcome including the new rateable values set to come into place on 1st April 2026 where there will inevitably be some winners and losers.