A new study has found that County Fermanagh’s retail spaces are 75 per cent more expensive than the UK average.

Noelle McAloon, Enniskillen BID manager, stated she had been told on a regular basis that the rental prices are higher than the Northern Ireland average in Enniskillen.

Business comparison experts Bionic found that the average cost to purchase a commercial property in County Fermanagh is £291,500 some 8 per cent cheaper than the Northern Ireland average (£315,433), and significantly lower than the UK average (£560,913).

However, the average commercial rental price in County Fermanagh was a staggering £3,360pcm – more than double the NI average (£1,467).

These figures were calculated by Bionic on available data per property, with monthly mortgage repayment estimates based on 75 per cent interest-only loans, aligned with the new five per cent interest rates, and spread over 15-year repayment periods.

These findings come as many commercial units in Enniskillen’s High Street remain empty, as do units right across County Fermanagh.

Addressing how this impacts business in Enniskillen, Noelle said: “As a BID manager, I am contacted regularly – and when I say ‘regularly’, I mean at least twice a month – by people wanting to set up a business in Enniskillen, and I am heartened by that.

“There are a lot of entrepreneurs who see potential in Enniskillen, and that gives our High Street hope, but what they are faced with is huge rents, and when they sit down to do a business plan and look at the rents and calculate the rates, a lot of them don’t come back, because it’s not feasible, and that is holding our High Street back.”

Referencing units that are large and currently unoccupied, which contribute to the overall average figure being high, Noelle said: “Part of it is the cost of rent and rates, and the availability of small- to medium-sized units but what we have at the moment are very large units, which require investment.

“Unless a huge investment goes into the former Dorothy Perkins and Topshop building, they are not getting rented, because our larger stores which we always had on the High Street are not going to come back.

“We are not going to attract a H&M or a Zara – that is just the facts. They are in Derry or Belfast, and they are not coming to any town this size, and if they do come, they are going to the shopping centre.

“It would be really useful if landlords could see the benefits in a young entrepreneur who is willing to sign a long-term lease, because flexibility is key in order to keep our High Street sustainable and keep it alive long into the future,” she added.

Speaking about how BID wish to combat the empty unit issue, Noelle said: “We in BID recently had a meeting with the Department for Communities, who provided the funding for the Public Realm Scheme, and what we are saying is they have provided a huge investment over the last couple of years into Enniskillen.

“What we are [now] saying is we need a project in terms of looking at the larger units. But they are saying that they have to have a buy-in from the private sector, and we as BID have said we will try and reach out, and if the private sector could work on meeting the Department halfway [it could help bring business to the area].”

She continued: “There is lots of positivity, with Elysian moving [to a new unit], and I’ve had a couple of meetings with different people [about opening a new business in Enniskillen], and it is all really positive. People really do see a future on the High Street and that is positive.”