European shopping centre development to accelerate in next 2 years

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 18, 2016

Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield reports that 9.1 million square metres of European shopping centres are predicted to be developed over 2016 and 2017, more than double the amount of floorspace developed last year, when the annual volume slipped to only 4.6 million square metres.

According to research by the firm, European cities such as London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Barcelona have the strongest development potential.

London retains its position as a top development hotspot delivering a low density of centres and strong retail sales growth of 15.8% by 2020.

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Elsewhere in the UK, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Bristol are forecast to see high retail sales growth over the next five years.

Madrid and Barcelona are also expected to experience high retail growth, with combined retail sales of 12% by 2020, while German and French cities are expected to display weaker growth at 6% by 2020.

Central and Eastern European countries are also predicted to see a high shopping centre activity over the next two years, with Ankara, Istanbul, Sofia, Prague and Riga delivering solid growth prospects.

Justin Taylor, Head of EMEA Retail at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “We are seeing clear and distinct regional trends. In the traditional strong, core markets of Western Europe there is an increasing move to focus on retail extensions to existing assets rather than new builds. Land for new centres is often scarce in these areas or complicated to bring together, so refurbishing or extending existing centres is a good option. We expect this trend to continue as landlords need to keep their offer fresh in a competitive environment."