According to Cushman and Wakefield’s (C&W) European Shopping Centre Development report, the outlook for the retail property market in Europe for the next two years is bleak with the amount of new space opening likely to be down considerably on previous years.

C&W believe in 2010 there is likely to be only 7m sqm of new space open while 2011 could see as little as 5m sqm open across Europe, the lowest figures since 2003. With 2009 expecting to have around 8.7m sqm of new shopping centre space open, a decline of -5% on 2008, the trend is definitely downwards. The research also predicts that completion levels will not pick up significantly for two to three years.

The largest amount of new shopping centre space opened in Russia, where approximately 580,000sqm was added in the first six months of 2009, of which around 45% was built in Moscow. In Western Europe, Italy recorded the highest amount of new space, with 18 new centres adding just over 370,000sqm to the market. Germany and the Netherlands also recorded relatively strong activity in the first half of 2009.

Bulgaria recorded the largest percentage increase in shopping centre provision at 33% but the largest centre to open in 2009 in Europe was the 122,000sqm Dolce Vita Tejo shopping centre in Amadora, Portugal.

Although investment activity in Eastern Europe has come to a standstill, there is some activity in more established markets such as the UK, Germany, France and Spain; according to the report.