New shopping centre development in Europe is expected to increase by a quarter in 2012 to meet retailer demand for modern, high quality retail space, according to the latest research by global property advisor CBRE.

CBRE’s Shopping Center Stock in Europe research examines existing shopping centres and those under construction in Europe of 10,000 square meters and above. This represents the vast majority of centre in which international retailers are located or would like to be located.
 
Across Europe, 51 shopping centres totalling 1.5 million square meters of space opened in the first half of 2012 with another three million square meters scheduled to open before the end of the year. If all of this space opens on time, completions will reach 4.4 million square meters in 2012, some 25% higher than in 2011.

Turkey is the most active market with almost 400,000 square meters of new shopping centre space completed in 2012, accounting for one third of new space delivered in the first half of the year. This is some way ahead of Germany at 165,000 square meters, and Italy and Poland which both have 140,000 square meters.

‘A highly active shopping centre development market in Turkey, Poland and Russia is enabling retailers to grow store networks there, but elsewhere the number of new centres is more modest, providing fewer opportunities for expanding retailers,’ said Neville Moss, head of EMEA retail research at CBRE.

‘Crucially, very little of the new space addresses the lack of prime units in major city centres, the most sought after locations by retailers, and consequently some are finding it difficult to achieve their store expansion plans,’ he added.

Some 3.6 million square meters of shopping centre space was completed in Europe in 2011, representing a 4.6% fall on the year. Nevertheless, this still signifies a significant level of new space, with only the development boom years of 2005 of 2009 seeing higher annual completion levels.
 
Emerging markets have dominated new development in recent years, but construction activity continues apace in the more mature European markets to meet retailer demand. In 2011, the big five western European markets of Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom accounted for one third of all new shopping centre space in Europe.

Turkey was by far the most active market in 2011, accounting for just over 20% of new shopping centre stock built last year, including the 160,000 square meter Marmara Forum in Bakirkoy, Istanbul, the largest scheme in Turkey to date.

In second position was Poland where 428,000 square meters was completed in 16 centres, accounting for 12% of new space. Development activity remained high in Russia with nine new centres completed in Moscow and St Petersburg alone.

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