Shopping center space in Europe to expand 25% in 2012

London -- New shopping center 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 adviser CBRE.

Turkey is the most active market, accounting for one-third of new space delivered in the first half of the year. This is some way ahead of Germany, with Italy and Poland just behind.

“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, 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.”

Emerging markets have dominated new development in recent years, but construction activity continues space in the more mature European markets to meet retailer demand. In 2011, the big five western European markets (Spain, Italy, France, Germany and United Kingdom) accounted for one third of all new shopping centre space in Europe.