Polarization widens in European shopping center market

As shopping center markets reach maturity in most European countries, there will be growing polarization between successful prime schemes and struggling secondary sites, which are having to diversify to survive, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield.

The firm’s annual European Shopping Centre: The Development Story report shows approximately 2.6 million square meters (28 million square feet) of new shopping center space was completed across Europe in 2018, 28 percent below the amount added in 2017. The 2018 figure represents the lowest level of completions for 24 years and is comparable with the volumes delivered in the early 1990s when the first traditional shopping centers in Central and Eastern Europe were opening.

Although the pace of new development has been slowing over the past five years, the total size of the European market is still growing — and now stands at 168.1 million square feet (1.8 billion square feet) — increasing sho