Increased retail park development across Europe is set to deliver 1.3 million m2 of new space to market by the end of the year, up 50% on 2015’s total, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield.
According to the firm’s European Retail Park Development Report, a further 1.1 million m2 of new retail park space is scheduled for delivery in 2017. This is also significantly more than the 863,000 m2 of space added across Europe in 2015.
If all the new space is delivered as planned, total retail park floorspace in Europe will grow from 37.3 million m2 at the start of 2016 to nearly 40 million m2 by the end of 2017. Of the potential 2.41 million m2 to be added, 2.06 million is in Western Europe and 0.35 million is in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
As in 2015, the retail park pipeline for 2016/2017 is dominated by France which accounts for 54% of total new space in Western Europe, followed by the UK with 17%, Italy with 10%.
The top three locations in CEE are Russia, Poland and Czech Republic – although the pipeline of potential floorspace is considerably lower than in Western Europe.
'In general, there is growing occupier demand for retail parks across Europe – reflected in low vacancy rates – driven by relatively low costs, flexible floor layouts, better logistical structure for supplying the stores, click-and-collect services and the opportunity to test new formats and concepts,' said Martin Supple, EMEA Out of Town Retail Partner at Cushman & Wakefield.
Although 2015 saw a slight dip in development terms, it was the biggest year since 2006 for investment into retail parks and retail warehouses with €9 bn invested across Europe. This was led by the UK – which accounted for 55% of the total – followed by France and Sweden. French investment was up 69% on 2014 while Sweden’s €594 mln represented a new record investment.
