Turkey and Russia are the most active markets in Europe in terms of shopping centre development, which is up 50% overall in 2013 compared with last year.
Turkey and Russia are the most active markets in Europe in terms of shopping centre development, which is up 50% overall in 2013 compared with last year.
According to the latest research from adviser CBRE, an ‘unprecedented’ 11.9 million m2 of shopping centre space is currently under construction in Europe, compared with 7.2 million m2 in 2012.
Shopping centre development activity is largely concentrated in emerging markets, with Eastern Europe accounting for 74% of activity.
Turkey is forecast to remain the most active market with around 3.7 million m2 of shopping centre space under construction. Istanbul is set to see most activity in the coming years with 37 centres currently under construction, including Axis Eyüp AVM with a GLA of 150,000 m2 and Yeni Istanbul (GLA of 137,684 m2).
In Russia, some 2.88 million m2 of shopping centre space is currently being built, mainly in Moscow where 1.4 million m2 of space is due to open over the next two to three years.
CBRE attributed the strong activity in Turkey and Russia to robust economic growth and rising incomes in these countries.
Other markets with significant amounts of shopping centre space under construction include Ukraine (789,888 m2), Poland (750,467 m2), Italy (665,779 m2) and France (648,200 m2).
Across Europe, 100 shopping centres totalling 3.44 million m2 of space opened in 2012, with Spain and Turkey the most active markets for completions. This year is set to be equally active with 1.5 million m2 of shopping centre space already completed. Almost 60% of this total is in Turkey, while 10% of all space completed in H1 2013 was also extensions to existing schemes.
