Five of London’s biggest property companies plan to offload billions of pounds worth of shops, retail parks and shopping centres in a bid to insulate themselves from the savage decline in the UK’s retail sector.

According to analysts at RBC Capital Markets, listed property trusts British Land, Hammerson, Intu Properties, Landsec and LondonMetric are targeting combined sales of £5.2bn as a number of household names in the retail sector, including House of Fraser, Debenhams and Patisserie Valerie, have been ravaged by the industry’s slump.