Published: December 1, 2010
Report highlights CEE's pipeline of high-street developments.
Interest in central and eastern Europe's recovering retail sector is rising, with companies and investors keen to increase their exposure.
A recent report by real estate adviser CB Richard Ellis noted that consumer confidence in central Europe has been rising this year thanks to increasing employment and positive economic growth rates. The pipeline of shopping centre developments in southeastern Europe, meanwhile, is robust. and the €630mn of retail investment in the region during the first half of 2010 was a rise of 190% on the same period in 2009, with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia accounting for the majority.
In November, UK retail chain Tesco told analysts that it would launch a new push into the region, aiming to double its retail space in emerging Europe during the next five years.
Alexander Khaldey, chief executive of Russian real estate developer AFI Developments, tells emeafinance that an upturn in activity in the retail sector has made it one of the busier sections of a real estate market that is “recovering quite fast”. In December the company opens the Mall of Russia, a 180,000-square metre shopping centre in Moscow.