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Study: Retail space offerings, to pick up in 2018, to 20,000 square meters, outside Capital
Offerings of retail space will pick up this year to 200,000 square meters, new projects and extensions being scheduled in ten medium-sized towns and cities in the country, whereas in the Capital, no significant offerings are scheduled, according to the reports of Bucharest Retail Market and Romania Retail Regional Cities .
Last year, offerings of new spaces totaling approximately 70,000 square meters were delivered in the country, while in Bucharest, the extension of AFI Palace Cotroceni was finalised, with the increase of the project's rentable surface by around 8,000 square meters, up to 9,000.
The stock of modern retail space outside the Capital has reached 2.42 million square meters, according to reports launched by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, while the surface of malls, retail parks and shopping areas in Bucharest measure 1.2 million square meters, taking into account the shutting down of Carrefour hypermarche and shopping area within the Vitantis Shopping Center project at the beginning of the year.
In Bucharest, the greatest retail space density is in the 1st district, with around 967 square meters/1,000 residents, followed by districts 6 (842 square meters/1,000 residents) and 3 (704 square meters/1,000 residents).
In the country, the towns with the largest density of retail space are Suceava (1,167 square meters/1,000 residents) and Oradea (926 square meters/1,000 residents) whereas cities, with a population over 250,000 residents, this indicator varies between 380 square meters/1,000 residents in Craiova and 694 square meters/ 1,000 residents in Timisoara.
In this context, Romania's towns where new retail space is scheduled for delivery in 2018 are Timisoara, Craiova, Bistrita, Sibiu, Buzau, Satu Mare, Baia Mare, Slobozia, Roman and Focsani, some of these projects' completion depending on whether construction licenses are obtained in due time.
Despite the fact that the average vacancy rate of shopping centres in Bucharest dropped last year from 4 percent to 3 percent, the retail stock will hold steady, pressuring the level of rent in the dominant shopping malls whose occupancy rate is or is close to 100 percent. The extension of the Colosseum Retail Park and Promenada Mall projects is planned in the coming years, as well as the development of retail parks in Balotesti (DN1 Value Center) and on Theodor Pallady avenue, on the Policolor platform.