Are shopping centres still justifiable?

What is the “raison d’etre” of shopping centres in 2020, and after? At the Mapic conference held in November, GRN explored a sector in the midst of critical change.

Through . Published on 12 December 2019 à 15h01 - Update on 14 October 2022 à 10h40

“We see that the market is in flux,” said Mael Aoustin, Director of the Belgian property developer Galimmo. The firm operates 66 shopping centres for the Louis Delhaize grocery retailer (20,000 to 25,000 sq.m GLA) in average sized cities across Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Romania. For retail property owners, the unstable outlook is significant for many reasons, including increased competitive pressure from e-commerce. In the U.K., this will take 18% of retail sales in 2019. Non-grocery aisles of hypermarkets are suffering. Fashion retailers face a fall in spending except for small niche items like sneaker brands. It is no surprise that investment values for retail remain low. “The volumes invested are not great during the 12 months to late June 2019. They show a fall of 22% for retail across Europe”, said Patrick Delcol,…