Confidence remains high across European shopping centres, ICSC’s European survey shows – EuropaProperty

Confidence among shopping centre executives remained positive in May as they reported an improvement in sales growth, according to the latest Pan European Shopping Centre Executive Opinion Survey released by The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), though overall business conditions for the European shopping centre industry dipped slightly compared with last month.

The survey results were compiled from responses of European shopping-centre executives collected between 14-31 May 2014.

While the footfall and occupancy index components continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in April, re-leasing rent fell back into decline. However, sales saw a particular acceleration of growth on the previous month.

Despite this welcome rise in the sales component, re-leasing rents continue to worry executives, with this market indicator seeing significant fluctuations month on month, and business conditions are not as strong as they were last month, according to the survey’s summary index (the ICSC Euro-Shop Index), but with many European economies now seeing signs of recovery, confidence among shopping centre executives is still much higher across the region that it was 12 months ago.

Sarah Banfield, Manager of International Research at ICSC, said: “We welcome the positive sentiment regarding shopping centre sales this month but the industry cannot allow itself a moment’s complacency with the apparent slow-down in growth of footfall. Added to this, tenants pushing hard for good deals are making re-leasing rent negotiations harder.”