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Real Estate: Colliers : The Romanian retail market remains among the most profitable in the region
The retail market in Romania remains among the most profitable in the region and there are new brands that still want to come here this year, Colliers Romania Retail Agency Director Liana Dumitru told a specialist conference on last Friday.
"We ended a rather difficult year with many challenges, but also with results beyond expectations. We witnessed a rapid rebound in consumption after the lifting of restrictions, with the arrival of summer, high traffic in shopping centres, per capita consumption with levels above countries in the region. Although in 2022 we had around 150,000 square metres of retail projects announced, only half of them were delivered, most of them being postponed until this year. The Romanian market still remains among the most profitable in the region, so there are new brands still wanting to enter the market this year. Last year we saw brands like Primark, Footlocker and Teddy open their first local stores. We expect other brands to join us this year. We may see such trends coming from the markets in Poland. Poland is, however, traditionally a gateway to the region for western brands, but we have seen increased interest also from the Baltic countries, the Nordic countries and Ukraine. Also, we expect companies that are already present on the market with some of the brands in the portfolio to come up with new concepts, to further consolidate their market shares," Dumitru highlighted.
According to Dumitru, the uncertainty factors that hovered over the entire market in 2022 were raising construction costs, utilities and funding, which made the entire decision-making process at the company level so much difficult.
"Of the slightly over 75,000 square metres that were delivered last year, most were retail park projects or extensions of existing projects. We saw extensions in Bucharest, Craiova, Baia Mare or in satellite areas, satellite communities, residential area properties near big cities such as Timisoara, Cluj, Iasi, even Bucharest. This year looks much more effervescent. We have 240,000 square metres announced for delivery and we could say that it is the largest delivery in the last ten years. Of course, there may be more changes, but we expect somewhere around 200,000 square metres to come true. More than half of the announced projects are retail park projects. This year, Arad will be the star with two announced projects, but we will also see other cities - Alba Iulia, Pitesti, Giurgiu, Vaslui, Campulung - receive new projects. Also, after a hiatus of more than six years, we will also have a first delivery of a large traditional shopping centre in Craiova - Promenada Mall - a 65,000-square-metre project to be delivered towards the end of the year," Liana Dumitru said.
Dumitru added that as far as demand is concerned, most retail categories had significant increases in 2022, both against 2000 and even against 2021.
Some of the leading players in the real estate industry on Friday participated in the "Real Estate & Construction Forum" event where the current state of the play in the real estate industry was discussed, with emphasis on the retail, industrial & logistics and office & residential sectors.