Russia dominates shopping center development pipeline with more than 5 million m² under construction

A staggering 1.88 million m² of new shopping center space has been developed across the European market in the first six months of 2014. Shopping center development activity has largely remained concentrated in emerging markets, with a large proportion (84%) taking place in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), according to the latest research from global property advisor CBRE.
Across Europe, over 4.5 million m² of shopping center space opened in 2013 with Russia, Turkey, Poland and France seeing the greatest completion of space respectively. Russia and Turkey remain the most active markets, with over 60% of Europe’s shopping center completions in 2013 located in these two countries. Russia has developed 1.5 million m² of new stock in 2013. The development pipeline in Turkey continues to be notable with more than 2.6 million m² of shopping center space under construction in H1 2014. This high rate of construction is due to an improving economy and a continuing interest of developers in regional cities.
Natasha Patel, Associate Director, EMEA Retail Research, CBRE, commented: “Shopping centre development activity levels in Europe are similar to what they were last year in terms of location, with new construction dominated by CEE. In Turkey the majority of development, certainly the larger schemes, is taking place in the major cities such as Istanbul with smaller scheme development taking place in the outer regions such as Izmir in Turkey.
“The scale of new development is largely to due to economic growth in the region, a growing middle class and the increasing demands of cross-border retailers, many of whom have found that the existing retail space in the region does not meet their requirements.”
Source: CBRE