Restaurants and cafes are slowly easing out shops in Dutch city centres, according to figures from retail property research group Locatus.

In 2007, 26% of city centre properties were occupied by restaurants, bars and cafes but this has now gone up to almost 30%, Locatus says. At the same time, the proportion of shops has gone down from nearly 53% to 46%.

The shift is apparent in both the big cities and smaller towns.

In particular, there has been a rise in the number of cafes serving coffee, breakfast and lunch, broadcaster NOS reported. Their number has gone up 16% while the number of coffee bars has risen 13%.

On Monday, figures from FoodService Instituut Nederland showed spending in cafes and restaurants increased by 4.5% in 2016. A total of €57 billion was spent on food and drink last year, 2.1% more than in 2015.