For the second year running, Hamburg-based ECE has captured the top spot in PropertyEU's annual ranking of top retail developers in Europe thanks to a string of recent completions including Milaneo in Stuttgart.

For the second year running, Hamburg-based ECE has captured the top spot in PropertyEU's annual ranking of top retail developers in Europe thanks to a string of recent completions including Milaneo in Stuttgart.

But although ECE ranks number one, the actual volume of retail space the German company delivered between 2012 and 2014 is down on the previous three-year period. The same is true of nr 2 (ikea Centres) and nr 3 (Unibail-Rodamco). Unibail-Rodamco's French peer Klépierre breaks with this trend: the company slipped a spot in the ranking but boosted the volume of delivered space over the period.

Three Dutch players - Multi Corporation, MAB Development and Corio - are notable losers. During the boom years Dutch retail specialists dominated the European rankings, but many have since foundered.

Multi is now part of Blackstone, MAB has been wound down and Corio was recently merged with Klépierre.

The ranking is based on projects delivered between 2012 and 2014 and includes extensions.