It has been a turbulent decade for physical retail. Back in 2015, annual European retail investment topped a record €70 billion in December of that year, the Office for National Statistics revealed that retail sales in Great Britain had risen for 32 consecutive months, and prime retail rents were increasing across the likes of Germany and France.

Since then, European retail investment has nearly halved. Rental rates declined 14.3 percent from their peak in the third quarter of 2018 up until the fourth quarter of 2023, while prime yields for shopping centres have expanded from 4.2 percent to 6.1 percent, and as recently as 2021, the retail share of total investment activity in Europe dropped to just 10 percent.

In the past four years, the sector has had to contend with enforced lockdowns and the consequent impact on footfall, huge changes in consumer habits, and near-unprecedented financial headwinds. In the United Kingdom, BHS, Topshop, Debenhams and House of Fraser