Russia Overtakes France as Europe's Largest Shopping Mall Market
According to new research from Cushman & Wakefield, after a number of large-scale malls were delivered to the European market in H2 2014, Russia has now broken France's 43-year reign as Europe's largest shopping centre market. Accounting for more than half of all shopping centre space added to the market in H2 2014, Russia's total shopping centre stock climbed to more than 17.7 million sq m as at the end of last year, overtaking France's 17.66 million sq m GLA. The UK follows behind as Europe's third largest market with 17.1 million sq m. According to Cushman & Wakefield's latest European Shopping Centre Development report, total shopping centre floor space across Europe totaled 152.3 million sq m at 1 January 2015, recording a 3.3% year-on-year increase. While Western Europe currently accounts for 69% of total built space, development activity in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) surged ahead in H2 2014, with 2.2 million sq m of space delivered to the market compared to 981,000 in Western Europe over the same period. Development activity throughout Europe has been motivated by the need to meet consumer demand for larger centres which offer a greater diversity of retailers, an array of leisure activities and a wider choice of food and drink offerings. Western Europe's biggest markets have seen an increasing number of extensions and refurbishments as developers seek to 'future-proof' small or outdated centres, whilst CEE is still dominated by the creation of new, dominant regional centres that serve a wide catchment area. These trends will continue into 2015 and 2016, with Russia and Turkey continuing to dominate the development pipeline as overall density remains at a low level, albeit the completion of projects of Russia will be subject to financing conditions and the wider geopolitical environment. In Western Europe, development activity in markets with lower densities such as Italy and Spain are also gaining momentum, with Italy's pipeline over the next two years more than doubling that of the UK. -
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