Why a small city can outperform: the case for York

The mismatch that matters

York's resident population is modest. Its visitor economy is not.

The city attracted 8.88 million visitors during 2025, and the visitor economy was worth £2.08 billion, a rise of 3.6% on the previous year, according to the STEAM report published by Make It York. Close to a third of that visitor spending went into the city's shops.

That is the central fact for anyone assessing York retail. The spending power passing a shop on a prime pitch bears very little relation to the size of the resident population, because most of it does not live here.

Supply is genuinely fixed

Plenty of places claim constrained supply. In York it is close to literal.

The commercial core sits within the medieval walls, on a street pattern that has not changed materially in centuries. The buildings are overwhelmingly listed or in conservation areas. Nobody is going to build another Coney Street, another Stonegate or another Low Petergate.

This matters more than it first appears. In most towns a strong pitch can be undermined by a new scheme built nearby, which is precisely what happened to many high streets during the era of out-of-town retail and shopping centre development. Where the historic core cannot be extended or replicated, the existing prime frontage is a fixed stock.

A diversified underlying economy

Tourism on its own would be a fragile foundation. York's is not the only pillar.

The city has two universities, a long-standing role as a rail centre, a substantial public sector presence including NHS and local government employment, a professional and financial services base, and a growing bioscience and technology sector. It sits on the East Coast Main Line, under two hours from London and around twenty-five minutes from Leeds.

That combination means the city does not depend on any single sector, which is what matters when you are asking whether occupier demand will still be there in a decade.

What small cities do well

Concentration. In a small city, prime is a handful of streets. Demand concentrates rather than spreading across competing districts.

Legibility. The market is small enough to understand properly. You can walk every prime pitch in an afternoon and know the tenants on each. We do it regularly, and it is genuinely useful.

Resilience of the core. Where the centre is also the destination, historic, walkable and the reason people come, it holds its relevance in a way a purely functional shopping street does not.

What small cities do badly

Thin liquidity. Fewer transactions, fewer buyers, longer sale periods.

A small pool of occupiers. Lose a tenant and the list of realistic replacements may be genuinely short.

Vulnerability to concentrated shocks. One large employer leaving, or a sustained fall in visitor numbers, affects a small city disproportionately.

Constraint cuts both ways. The listed buildings that cannot be replicated also cannot easily be altered. Planning and conservation consent shape what an owner can do, and repairs to historic fabric cost more. We have restored enough listed buildings in this city to say that with some feeling.

An honest assessment

York is not a guaranteed market. Retail everywhere has been through a structural correction, rents on many pitches have fallen a long way from their peaks, and some have further to fall. Tourism can decline. Listed buildings are expensive to look after.

What can be said with reasonable confidence is that the demand is real and diversified, the supply of prime commercial space is genuinely finite, and the city centre is the destination rather than simply a place to shop.

Those are the conditions in which a small city can outperform a larger one. They do not guarantee that any particular building will, and the fact that we own a good deal of property here should be weighed alongside everything above.

Take independent advice before investing anywhere, including here.