The European shopping centre market is set for another huge growth spurt in 2008 and 2009, driven by Central and Eastern European markets, according to a new Jones Lang LaSalle report.
The European shopping centre market is set for another huge growth spurt in 2008 and 2009, driven by Central and Eastern European markets, according to a new Jones Lang LaSalle report.
Following the development of a record six million m2 of new shopping centres in 2007, Russia alone has a shopping centre development pipeline of more than six million m2 for the next two years, the report says.
Italy, Turkey and Poland all have a pipeline of around two million m2.
Even the mature Western European markets of the UK and Germany have pipelines of over 1.5 million m2, following by the fast developing Ukraine, with over one million m2 under development.
In Russia, the market is still being driven by heavy demand in Moscow and St Petersburg, where new retailer demand is keeping vacancy rates at less that 1%, JLL said.
The ongoing boom in Turkey is also set to continue, the research shows. Even with 70 new centres planned for the 2008-2009 period, the country is still well below the European average in terms of shopping centre stock per head of population.
The report says Poland is the most vibrant market in Central Europe, growing by 17% in 2007. Some 70 new centres are set to be constructed over the next two years.
