Ilkley Town Centre Performance

Premises Type

Figures include businesses with commercial premises only
An independent retailer is defined as having less that 5 branches nationally

Vacancy Rates

Ilkley’s town centre occupancy has remained stable throughout the first five months of 2026, keeping pace with the strong performance recorded this time last year. Despite broader economic pressures facing the UK high street, our local vacancy rate has hovered consistently between 5% and 6%.

Ilkley’s vacancy rates remained exceptionally low throughout 2025, demonstrating the town’s resilient commercial appeal. While the year saw natural fluctuations—peaking at 6.9% (22 empty units) in October—the town centre quickly absorbed these vacancies as new businesses moved in. We are pleased to report that the year concluded with a return to our record-low vacancy rate of 6.0%, with just 19 empty units in December. This consistent ability to maintain high occupancy levels, even following mid-year closures, underscores Ilkley’s position as a premier and highly sought-after location for business.

Data is for premises in ground floor units within the BID area.
Premises currently available to let in Ilkley are between £17.91 and £21.78 per sq m per month.

Footfall

Ilkley had a solid start to 2026, pulling in a total footfall of over 1.2 million for the quarter—which is a massive result for the town. Even though things slowed down a bit for everyone in February, Ilkley bounced back brilliantly in March with an 11.7% jump in footfall. However, this momentum was cut short in April, which saw a sharper-than-expected downturn. Footfall for the month dropped to 384,118—representing a 7.4% decline compared to April 2025 (415,015).