Bucharest to see massive investments in malls

The mall projects planned for the next three years will completely change the face of Bucharest and the shoppers” habits. The amount of commercial space in the city will triple, as a result of investments worth over 500 million euros. Every city with more than 150,000 inhabitants in the rest of the country will have its own mall in the next three years. With three million visitors a year in the three malls in Bucharest, the developers” problem is what happens when the supply will be three times larger. The cumulated surface area of the shopping complexes is 170,000 square metres and will exceed 500,000 square metres in the next two years. The developers have already announced six projects, with the location in highest demand being, as in the case of residential projects, the north of the city. “It is only natural that developers would go to the north of the city,” believes Luiza Moraru, the head of the retail department of real estate company Eurisko. The explanation is obvious, market analysts say, given that the incomes of the population living in the northern Bucharest are visibly higher than those of the people living in the south area. Moreover, the north of Bucharest does not yet have a mall-type complex, with the only attempt thus far being Jolie Ville Galeria, which, however, has tried to position itself as too elitist, market analysts believe. “North is now the main destination for mall-type commercial space developments. This is the location of the main battle for commercial centres,” believes Monica Barbu, retail consultant with the local office of real estate company Colliers International. ZF