European mall completions set to jump 25% in 2012: CBRE

New shopping centre development in Europe is expected to increase by 25% in 2012 to meet retailer demand for modern, high-quality retail space, according to the latest research by global property adviser CBRE.

CBRE's Shopping Centre Stock in Europe research examines existing shopping centres and those under construction in Europe of 10,000 m² and above. This represents the vast majority of centres in which international retailers are located or would like to be located.

Across Europe, 51 shopping centres totalling 1.5 million m² of space opened in the first half of 2012 with another 3 million m² scheduled to open before the end of the year. If all of this space opens on time, completions will reach 4.4 million m² in 2012, 25% higher than in 2011.

Some 3.6 million m² of shopping centre space was completed in Europe in 2011, representing a 4.6% fall on the year earlier. Nevertheless, this still signifies a significant level of new space, with only the development boom years of 2005-2009 seeing higher annual completion levels, CBRE said.

Turkey is the most active market with almost 400,000 m² of new shopping centre space due to be completed in 2012, accounting for one third of new space delivered in the first half of the year. This is some way ahead of Germany (165,000 m2), with Italy and Poland (both 140,000 m2) just behind.

Neville Moss, head of EMEA retail research, CBRE, commented: 'A highly active shopping centre development market in Turkey, Poland and Russia is enabling retailers to grow store networks there, but elsewhere the number of new centres is more modest, providing fewer opportunities for expanding retailers. Crucially, very little of the new space addresses the lack of prime units in major city centres - the most sought after locations by retailers - and consequently some are finding it difficult to achieve their store expansion plans.'