MAPIC: Russia, Turkey lead European shopping centre completions

Russia and Turkey delivered the most new shopping space in Europe over the first six months of 2013, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield.

The two countries accounted for nearly half of the 1.8 million m2 in new European shopping centre space opened in H1 2013, according to C&W’s latest European Shopping Centre Development report.

While the H1 completions were significantly below the 3.4 million m2 of new space opened in the previous six months due to project delays, a total of 4.9 million m2 is projected for completion by the year-end. Of this, Central and Eastern Europe (including Turkey) are expected to account for 70% of the total pipeline.

Although still the third-largest market, Russia is poised to overtake UK as the second-largest market with a total of 3.2 million m2 under construction and due for completion by the end of 2014.

Turkey added 422,500 m2 of gross lettable area (GLA) to its retail stock in the first six months of 2013, with the Vialand Theme Park contributing 110,000 m2 of shopping centre GLA.

The UK took third place with 182,600 m2, followed by Poland and Germany in fourth and fifth place respectively, together delivering 214,200 m2 of GLA.

Maxim Karbasnikoff, head of retail in Russia for Cushman & Wakefield, said: ‘Russia demonstrates sustainable growth with demand for quality shopping centres exceeding supply, despite 1,5 million m2 delivered annually.’

He added: ‘There are large cities with almost no quality retail supply, such as Perm, where there are opportunities to gain a dominant position. In Moscow we still see potential for new development, notwithstanding the pipeline of 1.4 million m2 of new space under construction.’

For 2014, 171 new schemes and 65 extensions are due to be delivered across Europe, with the pipeline volume estimated at 6.2 million m2 of GLA. Shopping centre growth in Finland is expected to be the strongest among Western European countries, with floor space increasing 13.7% by the year-end.

In addition, here's a link to all the news from Mapic 2013