Russia to overtake UK in mall ranking

Russia will soon overtake the UK for the first time to become the second-largest shopping centre market in Europe, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

C&W’s European Shopping Centre Development 2013 report ranks France and the UK as the top two markets in terms of total existing shopping centre space with 16.95 million m2 and 16.48 million m2 respectively.

But Russia, the third largest market with 16.47 million m2 of space, will shortly surpass the UK as it continues to see new developments completed.

Russia has 2.4 million m2 forecast for completion in 2013-2014; this represents nearly a quarter (22%) of the entire European pipeline for this period.

Turkey is second in terms of volume of new shopping centre space in the pipeline for 2013-2014 with more than 1.5 million sq m due for completion; more than 50% of this new space will be located in Istanbul. If all projects are completed on time, Turkey will experience a 23% increase in shopping centre space by end-2014.

'Aside from Russia and Turkey, other countries expected to experience double-digit growth in shopping centre floorspace by the end of 2014 include Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Ukraine, emphasising the increasing influence of Central and Eastern Europe on the proportion of new shopping centre stock coming to the market in Europe,' said Neal Best, associate director in C&W’s European Research Group.

Europe delivered 5.7 million m2 of new shopping centre space in 2012 with Central and Eastern Europe accounting for almost 65% of all this new space.

Click on the link below for a PDF of the report.