Some 190,000 m2 of new shopping centre stock was delivered in Central Europe during the first half of 2013, with Poland accounting for 126,000 m2 of the total.
Some 190,000 m2 of new shopping centre stock was delivered in Central Europe during the first half of 2013, with Poland accounting for 126,000 m2 of the total.
The Central European markets are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
A total of 1.8 million m2 of new shopping centre space was added to the European market in the same period, according to the latest European Shopping Centre Development report published by property consultant Cushman & Wakefield (C&W).
C&W expects the new supply in CE to reach additional 540,000 m2 of GLA in the second half of the year 2013, which is due to the Christmas season generally more popular for opening shopping schemes. For the whole of 2013 the supply is forecast to reach 730,000 m2 of GLA.
'We believe there is still new development potential in Central Europe. The focus today is on natural gaps within certain cities, but more importantly on the optimisation of existing centres. We see the markets as developing naturally and converging to Western numbers at a reasonable pace,' said Jonathan Hallett, managing partner CE at C&W.
The EU-27 average of shopping centre stock is 262 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants while the CE average is 209 m2 per 1,000 inhabitants. The most saturated market is Poland with 225 m2 of shopping centre stock per 1,000 inhabitants, overtaking Slovakia, thanks to high activity in 2013.
Hungary is significantly under-saturated with only 136 m2 of shopping centre stock per 1,000 inhabitants while the Czech Republic stands at 210 m2/1000 population.
Looking forward to 2014, there are already 171 new schemes and 65 extensions due to be delivered across Europe, with the pipeline volume estimated at 6.2 million m2 of GLA.
