When it comes to shopping center development in Europe, the hottest markets are the emerging ones. Russia has the largest pipeline of retail space scheduled for delivery in next 18 months, followed by Turkey and Ukraine, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s European Shopping Center Development Report.
Russia has 3.2 million square meters of retail space under construction — enough to propel the country (currently at 16.0 million square meters) from the third-largest retail market in Europe to the second-largest market, overtaking the United Kingdom (currently 16.8 million square meters). France continues to have the most shopping center floorspace, at 17.0 million square meters, with an additional 800,000 square meters in the pipeline.
Europe’s emerging markets are significantly under-retailed compared with established markets in Western Europe, so developers and investors are currently playing catch-up. For example, Russia and Turkey have about 100 square meters of shopping center gross leasable area per 1,000 population, while France and the United Kingdom are around the EU average of nearly 300 square meters per 1,000 population.
That means there’s plenty of scope to build new shopping space.
Not a subscriber to IREI Insights blog? Sign up to receive alerts on new blog posts.
Loretta Clodfelter is a contributor to Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
