C&W Echinox expects new retail space deliveries in RO to drop by 50% this year

New retail space deliveries in Romania will decline significantly in 2021, after increased activity in regional cities last year, real estate consulting company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox estimates. It expects modern retail space deliveries to amount to about 60,000 sqm in 2021, a decrease of about 50% from the previous year.

Developers completed new commercial spaces with a cumulative area of about 126,000 sqm throughout the country in 2020. Thus, Romania's modern retail stock reached 4.04 million sqm or an average density of 209 sqm/1,000 inhabitants. The volume includes shopping centers (57% of spaces), retail parks (36%), and shopping galleries (7%).

The most important deliveries in 2020 were the retail component of the mixed project developed by AFI Europe in Brasov (with a leasable area of 45,000 sqm), the Shopping City Targu Mures (40,000 sqm rentable) developed by NEPI Rockcastle, and Dambovita Mall - the first modern retail project in Targoviste - developed by MAS Real Estate and Prime Kapital (with a leasable area of approximately 33,000 sqm).

"Having some important projects finalized in 2020 that complete the retail offer in certain regional cities shows us that the main players still have an appetite for new developments in Romania, despite the current pandemic context that has affected revenue predictability and sustainability," said Bogdan Marcu, Partner, Retail Agency, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Only three major projects are scheduled for delivery this year, namely the expansion of the Colosseum shopping center in the northwest of Bucharest, the first phase of Fashion House Pallady outlet shopping center developed by Liebrecht & wooD, and Sepsi Value Center in Sfantu Gheorghe. They have a total leasable area of approximately 40,000 sqm. Cushman & Wakefield Echinox estimates total deliveries of modern retail space of about 60,000 sqm this year.

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