The data used in the Retail OSCAR relates to service charges paid by occupiers to owners or managing agents of shopping centres. For consistency, all costs relating to any non retail uses such as office accommodation, leisure or residential are excluded from this analysis. The data in this report covers the costs associated with shared services and maintenance of the common parts of the shopping centre. Costs borne by the occupier in relation to their own demised premises are not included. The data which comprises the 2008 Retail OSCAR derives from audited or certified service charge accounts completed during the 2007 calendar year. All figures are analysed on a net of VAT basis. Costs are calculated by dividing the total service charge expenditure by the gross internal areas of the retail accommodation within the centre. All service charge weightings or differing bases of recovery are ignored. The ‘Definition of Terms’ is defining the principal cost categories referred to in this analysis.

Retail OSCAR 2008 has seen the introduction of a new size category – Very Large schemes, which are in excess of 750,000 sqft. The new size category will give a more accurate representation of average service charge by size of centre.

The representation of ‘Small Centres’ in this year’s report has decreased again from 11 to 9. This is a concern and an area of the sample size which must be increased in 2009 in order to get a more representative sample. The number of ‘Medium Centres’ has increased from 27 to 34 while the number of ‘Large Centres’ has increased from 68 to 73, 10 of which now form the new ‘Very Large’ size category. These figures have resulted in an additional 5,305,743 square feet of retail space being analysed in Retail OSCAR 2008. This represents a 15% increase against the 2007 report and a 29% increase against the 2006 report.

The 2008 sample is the most geographically balanced sample used for Retail OSCAR. For the first time, Region 2 (South, South West, Midlands, East Anglia and Wales) and Region 3 (North, Scotland and Northern Ireland) provide the largest proportion of the data with 34.5% (40 schemes) of data coming from each region. Northern Ireland has historically been under represented in the sample and a special focus was placed on this region during the data collection phase. The success of this focus is evident in the fact that historically Region 3 has provided the smallest proportion of the sample and in 2008 it is the joint highest contributor in number of centres. Region 1 (London and South East) contributes 31% (36 schemes) of data.

The contribution of each centre type has changed again this year with enclosed air conditioned centres decreasing from 54% of the sample size in 2007 to 49% in 2008, while enclosed non air conditioned centres have increased back to the 2006 levels of 29% from 23% in 2007. Part enclosed centres have increased from 13% in 2007 to 15% in 2008 and open centres have decreased again from 10% to 6% of the sample.