The Cheapest UK Cities to Open a Brick and Mortar Shop

Online businesses became incredibly popular during the country’s various Covid-19 lockdowns, and now that the retail world has reopened its doors many of these small business owners are considering opening their own physical stores. But how affordable is it to open a brick and mortar shop in the UK?

Small Business Prices set out to explore the country’s cheapest cities to open a physical shop, based on metrics such as daily high street footfall, commercial space rental costs, and average hourly rates of contractors like plumbers and electricians. 

Swindon revealed as the cheapest city to open a brick and mortar shop

Rank	Cities	Total high street footfall	Avg. monthly rent for commercial spaces (£)	Avg. price to buy commercial space (£)	Average hourly rate for a builder (£)	Average hourly rate for an electrician (£)	Average hourly rate for a painter decorator (£)	Average hourly rate for a plumber (£)	Average hourly rate for a handyman (£)
1	Swindon	212	14,120	650,000	20	25	15	26	29
2	Plymouth	362	11,256	295,000	28	31	22	31	29
3	Stoke-on-Trent	239	6,510	70,000	24	28	21	34	20
4	Sheffield	206	9,133	185,000	30	27	19	34	23
5	Aberdeen	230	8,250	300,000	25	31	21	37	29
6	Wolverhampton	N/A	11,715	N/A	24	33	20	39	36
7	Derby	225	11,633	147,500	26	29	20	38	27
8	Kingston-Upon-Hull	255	21,724	350,000	23	30	20	37	29
9	Bradford	206	10,375	213,750	26	33	22	41	15
10	Cardiff	214	14,590	496,667	27	30	23	34	27

Our analysis of the UK’s 30 most populous towns and cities found that Swindon is the cheapest place overall for small business owners to open a brick-and-mortar shop. 

Finding a premises to operate out of is relatively affordable compared to other towns and cities in our ranking, with the average price of renting a 100-750 square foot commercial space in Swindon being £14,120 per year. However, buying a property is on the slightly more expensive side with commercial spaces between 100 and 1,000 square feet costing £650,000 on average, which makes it the fourth most expensive to buy in after Reading, Nottingham, and Southampton. 

Hiring builders, electricians, painter-decorators, and plumbers to get the shop in working order is also more affordable in Swindon than anywhere else we analysed, with each of these professionals charging the lowest hourly rate for their services. 

Swindon is the cheapest place to hire a contractor

Rank	Cities	Average hourly rate for a builder (£)	Average hourly rate for an electrician (£)	Average hourly rate for a painter decorator (£)	Average hourly rate for a plumber (£)	Average hourly rate for a handyman (£)	Average hourly rate of all contractors
1	Swindon	£20	£25	£15	£26	£29	£115
2	Stoke-on-Trent	£24	£28	£21	£34	£20	£127
3	Sheffield	£30	£27	£19	£34	£23	£133
4	Leicester	£23	£38	£20	£36	£18	£135
5	Bradford	£26	£33	£22	£41	£15	£137
6	Kingston-Upon-Hull	£23	£30	£20	£37	£29	£139
7	Leeds	£26	£34	£23	£41	£15	£139
8	Derby	£26	£29	£20	£38	£27	£140
9	Plymouth	£28	£31	£22	£31	£29	£141
10	Cardiff	£27	£30	£23	£34	£27	£141

Swindon is also revealed as the best location to hire local contractors to help set-up and create your physical shop, costing an average of £115 an hour to have the support of a builder, electrician, painter, plumber and handyman. Stoke-On-Trent and Sheffield sit in second and third place, with the contractors costing £127 and £133 an hour respectively. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, London is the most expensive city to have the support of tradespeople, costing an average of £209 per hour, with plumbers valuing their work the most at an average of £50 an hour.

Stoke-on-Trent has the lowest commercial space rental costs

Rank	Cities	Total high street footfall	Avg.monthly rent for commercial spaces (£)	Avg. buy for commercial spaces (£)	Average hourly rate for a builder (£)	Average hourly rate for an electrician (£)	Average hourly rate for a painter decorator (£)	Average hourly rate for a plumber (£)	Average hourly rate for a handyman (£)
1	Stoke-on-Trent	239	6,510	70,000	24	28	21	34	20
2	Aberdeen	230	8,250	300,000	25	31	21	37	29
3	Sheffield	206	9,133	185,000	30	27	19	34	23
4	Glasgow	224	9,423	115,000	31	32	445	39	38
5	Bradford	206	10,375	213,750	26	33	22	41	15
6	Manchester	213	10,540	50,000	28	32	23	38	28
7	Coventry	175	11,114	N/A	24	33	21	38	31
8	Plymouth	362	11,256	295,000	28	31	22	31	29
9	Derby	225	11,633	147,500	26	29	20	38	27
10	Southampton	235	11,643	720,000	30	38	28	41	32

Renting a commercial space rather than buying one gives small business owners the freedom to relocate to another location when the tenancy reaches its end. This level of flexibility could come in handy if the business outgrows the premises a short time after its launch. 

With that in mind, we looked at the cheapest cities and towns to rent a 100-750 square foot commercial space. 

Stoke-on-Trent comes out on top as the most affordable place to rent a shop, with an average monthly cost of £6,510, and Aberdeen comes in second with £8,250. Sheffield is the next most affordable option with rental costs averaging £9,133.

Manchester is the cheapest city to buy a commercial space

Rank	Cities	Total high street footfall	Avg. monthly rent for commercial spaces (£)	Avg. price to buy commercial space (£)	Average hourly rate for a builder (£)	Average hourly rate for an electrician (£)	Average hourly rate for a painter decorator (£)	Average hourly rate for a plumber (£)	Average hourly rate for a handyman (£)
1	Manchester	213	10,540	50,000	28	32	23	38	28
2	Stoke-on-Trent	239	6,510	70,000	24	28	21	34	20
3	Leicester	201	13,800	91,125	23	38	20	36	18
4	Glasgow	224	9,423	115,000	31	32	445	39	38
5	Derby	225	11,633	147,500	26	29	20	38	27
6	Brighton & Hove	221	16,543	150,000	28	41	50	45	22
7	Sheffield	206	9,133	185,000	30	27	19	34	23
8	Portsmouth	249	N/A	197,500	30	38	27	39	24
9	Bradford	206	10,375	213,750	26	33	22	41	15
10	Birmingham	189	14,656	220,000	24	32	20	39	36

Buying a commercial property comes with a little more stability than renting, and it means your ongoing costs are reduced as you won’t need to factor in rent payments. 

According to our research, Manchester is the cheapest place to buy a commercial space, with the average price for a 100-1,000 square foot property being £50,000. After that, Stoke-on-Trent is the second most affordable with an average cost of £70,000, and Leicester comes third with £91,125.

Overall, our research shows that there are plenty of affordable cities and towns for small business owners to open a brick and mortar shop in, with cost-effective contractor rates and fairly-priced commercial spaces in high footfall areas to capitalise on passing trade. 

Methodology

We analysed business costs for the 30 most populous cities across the UK to reveal the cheapest location to open a brick and mortar shop in. We have looked at the average hourly price of hiring contractors e.g builders, electricians, plumbers etc. to carry out work on the retail space per city. Where city specific data was not available, the national average was taken. 

Other metrics included high street footfall data for each city, the monthly average rent for commercial spaces and the average price to buy commercial spaces in each city. Due to the insufficiency of sample data taken to average the “buy for commercial spaces price”, we have excluded it from our final ranking. Therefore, our final ranking includes high street footfall data, average hourly price of hiring contractors and average monthly rent for commercial spaces.

Sources

• centreforcities.org
• rightmove.co.uk
• search.savills.com
• hamuch.com