Global shopping centre development rises to 39 million sqm – EuropaProperty

A total of 39 million sqm of shopping centre space is currently under construction across the world’s major cities, representing a three million sqm increase from 2013, according to the latest research from CBRE.

The development activity of shopping centre space around the world is focused in China. Indeed, more than half of the shopping centre space under construction in the 180 countries surveyed is taking place within China’s borders. Shanghai takes first position with 3.3 million sqm of space under construction – more than the combined total of all 86 European cities excluding those in Russia and Turkey. Just behind Shanghai is Chengdu with 3.2 million sqm followed by Shenzhen and Tianjin with 2.7 million sqm and 2.5 million sqm under construction respectively.

Other markets in the top ten include Istanbul, Wuhan, Moscow, Beijing, Nanjing, and Guangzhou.

In Europe, Russian and Turkish cities continue to dominate the development pipeline. The most active market in Europe is Istanbul with 27 centres (1.9 million sqm) currently under construction. As in other markets, much of this new space is away from the city centre in peripheral locations.

Moscow leads the development for Russia with 1.5 million sqm of space due to open over the next three years. However, development activity is also at an all-time high in regional cities, such as St Petersburg, Yekateringburg, Samara, and Novosibirsk, with some 2.6 million sqm due for completion in 2014 alone.

Of the 35 new centre openings in Europe in 2013, 26 were in Eastern Europe, with only four in Central Europe and just five in Western Europe. Although new shopping centre development remains at historically low levels in much of Western Europe, many larger centres have extensions planned to accommodate the strong occupier demand for the best retail destinations around Europe.

In Romania there are 267,000 sqm of shopping center spatiu under construction to be delivered in the period 2014 – 2016 in cities like Bucharest, Brasov and Targu Jiu.