Bouyancy in the forecourt property market is likely to continue well into 2018, although a market peak at some point in the year would not be surprising, according to Steve Rodell, managing director retail, at Christie & Co, which has just published its annual Business Outlook report.

Following an extremely successful year in which the property specialist was involved in the transactions of around half of the 160 forecourts sold, Rodell said that forecourts with healthy fuel margins and growing convenience operations would see the trend for strong market prices continue well into 2018. "However, it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw peak forecourt property prices this year," he added. "But my big bold caveat is if profits on a forecourt don’t fall, nor does the value. How that profit is made up will be very interesting to see over the next 10 years or so. If fuel volumes reduce because people are driving more efficient cars, retailers need to think about how they replace that lost fuel margin."

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