Shoppingcenter in CEE - A new boom?

Last autumn the heated development of retail projects that dominated the last few years suddenly came to a near-standstill. The volume of transactions was nearly cut in half and the pipeline for new projects was clogged.

In the meantime the situation relaxed a bit, but it is still far from normal. The various types of projects are also affected differently. "Worst affected are the large, multifunctional projects, that are still in an early planning phase", analyses DI Wolfgang Richter, CEO of RegioData Research, "these have either been postponed for up to 3 or 4 years or they have been completely cancelled, because it is nearly impossible to find funding at the moment."

Seemingly untouched by the current situation seem to be other retail projects - so-called "Big Boxes" - from finacially strong companies such as Ikea, Baumax, Real, Carrefour, Auchan, ect. And there is another growing trend: more and more small retail parks are being built. This development is, among other things, caused by the fact that the costs for development and construction are considerably lower as for more complex shopping centers. Therefore funding is easier acquired for these kind of projects.

Which further trends and more importantly trend reversals are arising in the face of the current economic situation shows the RegioData Shopping Center Explorer 1/2009 - with data and analyses for 4.000 shopping centers in CEE.