According to the report Cushman &Wakefield «Shopping centers of Europe », Russia at the end of 2017 ranks second in the European ranking in terms of the number of new, commissioned areas in shopping centers.

Russia moved from the first to the second line, as the annual volume of leased space decreased from 1.6 million square meters (2016) to 616,000 square meters (2017). This was the lowest figure in the last 10 years. However, in 2018 we are waiting for a new anti-record – only about 500,000 sq. m. is planned to be commissioned. m of retail space. Moreover, almost half of them - 220 thousand square meters. m - are located in Moscow and the region. The largest new shopping center will be Kashirskaya Plaza (GLA 71,000 sq. m.).

Comments Tatiana Divina, Senior Director of the Research and Analytics Department at Cushman & Wakefield: "In part, the decline in construction activity is a natural result of the crisis years: since 2015, new construction has practically not been launched, mainly those facilities that they were started back in the pre-crisis period. Another factor of the downturn is the established relative equilibrium between supply and demand. When analyzing the structure of projects planned for commissioning, there is an obvious tendency for developers to shift their focus from the construction of large facilities to smaller projects. At the end of 2017, the average size of the existing shopping center was 36.8 thousand square meters, while the average size of the shopping facility planned to open in 2018 is only 25 thousand square meters.

The attention of developers is drawn to existing facilities rather than the construction of new ones. The reconstruction and expansion of existing shopping centers is underway. Thus, in the regions of Russia, the main share of new construction (almost 60%) fell on new phases of existing projects. Currently, the concepts of shopping centers "Peak", "Academy Park", "Atlantic City" and "Continent" are being revised in St. Petersburg. In Moscow, the repositioning and rebranding of the SEC «Golden Babylon Otradnoye» and SEC «Golden Babylon Rostokino» will be carried out, as well as their overhaul.

The most active European developer in 2017 was Turkey In the second half of the year, the country managed to bring 495 000 sq. m to the market. m of retail space, overtaking Russia (330,000 sq. m.) and Poland (298,000 sq. m.). In general, last year the supply in Turkey increased by 1.1 million square meters, which accounted for 47% of the total in the Central and Eastern Europe region. The portfolio of development projects for 2018–2019 includes 1.4 million square meters. m of new areas, approximately 70% of which are located in Ankara and Istanbul.

As the data of the report showed, the decline in the pace of construction of shopping malls is a trend in many European countries. For example, Germany showed an 82% decrease, which was caused by restrictive planning legislation that made it difficult to build new shopping complexes outside cities. In general ;t the area of new facilities introduced in 2017 in Europe decreased by 23%? compared to the previous year, amounting to 3.8 million sq. m., The pace of development was influenced by growing competition, changing consumer behavior and, of course, an increase in the number of online retailers.

According to forecasts, the area of retail premises to be commissioned over the next two years will amount to 6.6 million sq. m. At the same time, there will be a significant gap between the countries of Western and Central and Eastern Europe:Western Europe is expected to decline by more than 21%, while the region of Central and Eastern Europe, on the contrary, will show an increase of about 12%.

Due to a decrease in construction volumes in some European countries, the total area of shopping complexes in Europe at the beginning of 2018 showed an increase of only 2.3%, compared with the estimate of the previous 12 months, and amounted to 166.5 million square meters. m. Western Europe accounts for 109.7 million square meters of retail space, Central and Eastern Europe – 56.8 million sq. m.

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