Shoppers are becoming increasingly conscious and are looking for easily accessible, environmentally friendly shopping centres that also have outdoor green areas, a representative survey called "The role of shopping centres in the 21th century" by Westend and Marketing Resolution found. The survey examined the customer habits of people living in Budapest and its suburbs, including how often they visited their favourite malls, what experiences they were looking for there or what products were in highest demand.

Gap, the American casual clothing and accessories brand, announced its entry into the Hungarian market through a franchise partnership with Ganeta Pannónia Kft. The brand will be introduced to customers through Gap-branded stores in the country, beginning with the opening of a Gap freestanding store in Etele Plaza in September 2021.

NEPI Rockcastle’s turnover in H1 2021 was 28.1% higher than in H1 2020 and 23.1% lower than in H1 2019 (on a property like-for-like basis, excluding hypermarkets and entertainment). The company published its interim financial report for H1 2021.

Bluehouse Capital has sold the Point Shopping Center in Zagreb. CBS International, part of the Cushman & Wakefield Group, acted as advisor on the deal as an exclusive sales representative, ekapija.com reports. The buyer was Slovenian investor TRIGAL Alternative Investment Fund, the company announced on LinkedIn.

Awaiting the reopening of shops and service outlets to go shopping at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, positive footfall results achieved by most shopping centres in May, the opening of a second Primark store with a third one in the pipeline, plus a strong debut of a new Polish off-price concept – these are some of the key news and developments to have taken place in the retail sector in Q2 2021, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The increasing number of vaccinations is allowing the retail sector to catch its breath, with customers returning to ‘brick-and-mortar’ stores. JLL forecasts that total new supply could hit 540,0000 sqm in 2021, marking a return to pre-pandemic performances.

Outlet centres in Europe continue to grow in terms of numbers and retail sales area. As the Wiesbaden-based research institute ecostra reports on the basis of its ongoing market monitoring, 4 outlet centres and a retail sales area of almost 55,000 sqm were added on balance in Europe in the past 12 months

Regardless of the problems that the measures related to the coronavirus crisis have brought to the retail segment – with shops in Czechia closed for 234 days, the longest period in all of Europe – new brands keep coming to the local market. Nine of them have arrived or will arrive during the first half of the year, the most prominent one of them being Ireland’s Primark fashion chain whose shop opening was expected with a great deal of anticipation.

Retail chain Spar built new supermarkets in a Budapest residential park and in a frequented district of Sopron, and modernised its stores in Mosonmagyaróvár and Szentlőrinc.

Bluehouse sold the Korso Karviná shopping centre (in the Northern Moravian region of the Czech Republic, east of Ostrava) to local investor Conseq Investment Management in this year’s first shopping centre transaction on the Czech market.