Investors could soon benefit from creative solutions to transform Germany’s retail sector, writes Martin Mörl, managing director of Girlan Immobilien.
Not all of the retail venues existing in Germany today will still be used as they are today in a few years’ time. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, major shifts such as digitisation, structural change and ecommerce put retail under considerable pressure in Germany.
Out of €543 billion in total revenues in 2019, the physical retail sector accounted for €485 billion, while ecommerce claimed €58 billion. However, online retailing more than doubled its revenues between 1999 and 2019, whereas department stores suffered revenue losses of 42 percent over the same period of time, underlining the overall trend.
Fund managers and other institutional investors therefore face the increasingly pressing question of how to keep developing their own retail real estate stock in sustainable, resilient and future-proof wa
