Following the pause caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Cushman & Wakefield has brought back the Main Streets Across the World report, ranking 47 countries by headline rents in best-in-class urban locations in each of them. The Czech Republic is newly represented by Prague’s Pařížská Street, which has replaced Na Příkopě as the country’s most expensive street. Among the other most expensive main streets of the world, Pařížská ranks 17th (Na Příkopě ranked 18th in 2019) and comes first in the CEE region. As compared by the survey, the highest prime rent achieved in Pařížská as of this year’s third quarter amounts to €2,719 per square metre per year, or approximately €227 per square metre a month.

As of November this year, Multi Corporation has been appointed the new property and asset manager for the shopping centre Central in Bratislava, the company announced.

Revetas Capital announced a 29% increase in turnovers and an 18% increase in footfall for the first 8 months at Park Center Sofia, Bulgaria, compared to the same period in 2021.

Dr. Angelus Bernreuther, Head of Investor Relationship Management at Kaufland talked to Property Forum about the key drivers of retail, the increasingly important role of digitalization and also shared the company’s expansion strategy for the CEE region.

At the end of June 2022, the supply of modern retail space in the Czech Republic amounted to almost 3.97 million sqm. Shopping centres take about 67%, retail parks 31% and outlets the remaining 2% of the market. During the first six months of 2022, the retail park construction boom has not stopped yet and the retail market expanded by 19,500 sqm. Over the last five years, the share of retail parks has increased by 5%. The largest completed project in the first six months of this year was Shopping Centre Řepy in Prague. Another 52,300 sqm of retail space is currently under construction across 12 projects, of which 31,200 sqm is expected to be completed this year, says JLL in its retail market report for Q2 2022.

The Ukrainian retail industry together with the rest of the country is going through one of the most alarming stages in its history. Shopping malls are increasingly becoming targets for enemy fire. It is difficult to estimate the financial losses caused by the Russian army as the situation is constantly changing. According to the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres (UCSC) the losses incurred by the shopping mall industry as a result of the aggression amount to $9.8 billion. This calculation includes direct and indirect losses, writes Katy Klyueva in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

Classical shopping centres should adapt to the latest trends in retail to survive. That includes establishing strong ties between the digital and physical world and defining the tenant mix more accurately. Entertainment is also a must as these centres will have to become beloved community centres as well, says Márk Balástyai, Project Director of the recently opened Etele Plaza, built by Hungarian developer Futureal.

Atrium has sold the shopping mall Optima in Košice, Slovakia. The company wants to focus on its core markets, Warsaw and Prague from now.

Austrian real estate group Supernova has added four MAX shopping malls to its portfolio of eleven OBI supermarkets in Slovakia. The transaction, without mentioning the price, was reported by the news website reality.trend.sk.

The footfall in Czech regional shopping centres remained almost unchanged despite the previous years of the pandemic and all the lockdowns. The turnover and the average basket increased, and the vacancy is stable. However, due to the 18-week lockdown, the year 2021 fell behind 2019 by about 15%. The biggest concern now comes from the inflation and spending cuts reported by CBRE in its regular Shopping Centre Index analysis together with the results of two surveys on customer behaviour and expected plans of retailers.