Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Asda is moving into the property game. The UK’s third biggest supermarket chain has announced plans to build 1,500 homes around its existing Park Royal supermarket in west London, working with the housebuilder Barratt London. Asda is planning six other land sales, with the capacity to build 10,000 new homes and help offset its outsize debts, while the local authorities involved make progress towards their housing targets by converting brownfield sites. Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have all flirted with the property sector, while local authorities want to turn struggling office districts and empty shopping centres into home hubs. But this is not a pure win-win. Asda-adjacent homeowners will live in an area built for shoppers, not residents. The move may work in public transport-rich London; less so in green-belt suburbia.
