C&W expects shopping centre development to see slowest rate in 2010

Up to seven million m² of planned shopping centre development in Europe has been put on hold or cancelled as a result of the credit crunch, a new research report issued by C&W shows. In its new European Shopping Centre Development report the broker said that it expects around 10 million m² of new shopping centre space to open across Europe in 2009, 40% less than forecast in July 2008, with an even lower amount of 7 million m² now expected to open in 2010. This would represent the slowest rate of expansion since 2005 and would bring an end to five consecutive years of growth in shopping centre development.

2008 was a record year for shopping centre openings in Europe, with over 9 million m² of new shopping centre space opening in 310 schemes. Russia led the way with 1.65 million m² of new space followed by Turkey, the UK, Spain and Romania.

Of a total of 250,000 m² planned new shopping centres and extensions to existing malls in the Czech Republic, almost 150,000 m² of new schemes were actually opened. The total completion of extensions to existing centres totalled 46,000 m². The total area of this retail category in the Czech Republic has therefore reached almost 1,950,000 m².

'Planned development of shopping centres for 2009 has been reduced significantly. Updated developer's plans talk about 150,000 m² of new floorspace including the extensions of the current schemes. Twelve months ago these plans were 40% higher, for almost 250,000 m² of new floorspace in 15 shopping centres. The forecast for 2010 suggests 380,000 m² of new floorspace to be opened but financing for some of these schemes is unclear at the current time,' said Martin Zízala, head of retail department C&W Prague.