Compared with the long-term average, the nine-month figure shows an even steeper drop of 30%, the adviser found. Investment volumes over the first three quarters totalled close to €35 bn in 2015 before falling to €25 bn last year.   

Germany took the biggest share of retail deals in the first nine months at €8.5 bn, followed by Spain at €3 bn and the UK at €2.9 bn. Germany’s 40% share of the total mainly involved portfolio transactions; examples include Bavarian pension fund BVK and Universal-Investment acquiring 90 retail assets from Corestate Capital for €687 mln and Patrizia taking over a package of 85 stores from the third Swedish national pension fund AP3 for €400 mln.  

France led the way in the high street segment with €905 mln of deals in the period to end-September, followed by Italy at €630 and the Netherlands at €421 mln.   

Savills provided the figures ahead of PropertyEU's European Retail Investment Briefing, hosted by the property advisory firm at its 33 Margaret Street offices in London on Friday, 10 November.    

Under construction
Investors looking to secure retail product – specifically shopping centres – can look forward to 11.1 million m2 of new space being built across the EMEA region, according to new figures from CBRE. Much of this new space is in the form of extensions, which make up 20% of shopping centre stock in EMEA with the UK, Ireland and Austria all showing sizeable extension pipelines.

Eastern European countries are the most active shopping centre development markets, with Russia, Poland and Ukraine all showing strong development pipelines, CBRE said.

Russia and Turkey
Russia’s development pipeline currently stands at 1.9 million m2, mainly reflecting improving economic fundamentals coupled with strong forecast retail sales which is starting to improve developer sentiment.

Turkey continues to have the largest shopping centre development pipeline overall with 2.2 million m2 of new space under construction.

The UK has the largest shopping centre development pipeline in Western Europe with a total of 460,000 m2 of new space under construction and due to be delivered over the next five years.

Andrew Phipps, head of UK & EMEA retail research at CBRE, commented: ‘The level of shopping centres under construction remains closely correlated to forecasted retail sales. Unsurprisingly, markets that are forecasted to have strong retail sales are particularly attractive to developers as retailers and occupancy are reliant on tapping into these markets for continued growth.’

In terms of completions, a total of 1 million m2 of new shopping centre space was delivered across EMEA in the first six months of the year, CBRE reported.

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10 November 2017

European Retail Investment Briefing

Savills, 33 Margaret Street, London, W1G 0JD, UK | 08:00 - 10:30

The European retail sector continues to attract significant investor interest across Europe. With economic growth creating higher levels of disposable household income in many countries across Europe the retail sector should see increased consumer activity - especially in Eastern Europe.

Registration is complimentary but places are limited.

Please register now to guarantee your place