Deliveries of new retail space could exceed 200,000 sqm in 2024

Deliveries of new retail projects could exceed the 200,000 sqm threshold this year, a level close to that recorded in 2023, when developers built 213,000 sqm of new retail space, a record in the last seven years, as shown by data from real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

In the first three quarters of 2024, 140,000 sqm of shopping centers and retail parks were completed nationwide. As a result of these deliveries, the modern retail stock in Romania reached 4.59 million sqm. The stock includes both shopping centers (55% of the spaces) and retail parks and shopping galleries (45%).

“The retail market is going through a very favorable moment, after having successfully overcome the difficult periods of recent years. The impressive growth of retail sales this year has remained well above the average recorded at the EU level, which encourages the development of new projects, but also the expansion of retail networks, whether we are talking about hypermarkets or supermarkets, or whether we are referring to fashion, DYI or other product segments,” says Dana Radoveneanu, Head of Retail Agency Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

The development activity on the retail market will maintain its dynamism in the coming period, taking into account the consistent plans announced by the main developers in the short and long term, say the consultants from Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Thus, projects of over 800,000 leasable sqm are under construction or in various stages of authorization, whose delivery is scheduled in the next 5 years, including several super-regional shopping centers of over 100,000 sqm each.