Romania’s retail stock is set to expand by around 90,000 sqm in 2024, of which more than half will be based in Pitești-based Argeș Mall. However, the development pipeline is strong for the 2025-2028 period, with a few large and dominant shopping centres expected to add several hundred thousands of leasable space to the local market, according to Colliers data.
In Cluj-Napoca, Iulius plans to deliver a mall spanning 100,000 sqm, while Prime Kapital and MAS REI will develop in the same city a retail scheme of 70,000 sqm. In Iași, Prime Kapital and MAS REI will also deliver an extension of nearly 60,000 sqm to Moldova Mall by the end of 2025.
There are as well quite a lot of other large projects underway, or where works should commence soon, with a leasable area of somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 sqm each.
Romania remains a significantly undersupplied market, not only in comparison with Western European countries, but also with Central and Eastern European countries. For a similar level of consumption (in terms of volume) as in the Czech Republic and Poland, Romania's modern retail stock per capita is twice as low as in the Czech Republic and more than 40% lower than in Poland.
“The shift in mindset towards bigger projects shows an increased risk appetite and confidence in the country’s longer-term path. There is still room for such sizable shopping in many big cities, including Bucharest, where the problem has been more one of securing adequate land plots with good infrastructure connectivity,” said Liana Dumitru, Director Retail Agency at Colliers.
The agency’s data shows that Romania has a total modern retail stock of over 4.3 million sqm, of which over 2.7 million sqm are in shopping centres and the rest mainly in retail parks. Over 60% of the total modern retail area is concentrated in the top 10 largest cities, with populations over 200,000 inhabitants.
