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Five key segments of opportunity
1. The ‘Tiger’ Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
- Explosive retail sales and wider economic growth
- Under-developed retail infrastructure provides both development and investment opportunities
2. ‘Mature’ Central Eastern European Markets – Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic
- Development opportunities in major towns and cities are saturating – switch of focus to smaller and more regional centres
- Polarisation between stronger and weaker retail property assets will see a more sophisticated and competitive investment market
3. The Central European ‘New Breed’ – Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia
- Five to ten years behind the ‘Big 3’ Central European countries on the retail maturity curve
- Significant opportunities for development of modern retail floorspace (shopping malls and retail warehousing), initially focussing on the largest towns and high population density conurbations
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4. ‘Underdeveloped, High Growth Western European Markets’ – Portugal, Ireland, Denmark
- Countries set to achieve higher-than-average retail sales growth, where current and future consumer demand exceeds existing supply
- Requirements for new retail capacity to capitalise on potentially overheating retail markets
5. Regional Hotspots in Mature Western Countries
- Opportunistic investment and development opportunities, using micro- rather than macroeconomics as a barometer of potential returns
- Identified retail sales growth ‘hotspots’ include: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö (Sweden) Montpellier, Brittany, Provence, Bordeaux, Toulouse (France) Albacete (Spain) Helsinki, Turku (Finland) Lillehammer, Oslo (Norway) Hasselt (Belgium) Lelystad (Netherlands)
- Strategic site selection and astute asset management
European Retail Property - looking beyond the benign
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