Suceava and Pitesti see highest concentration of retail space

Suceava and Pitesti are the cities with the highest concentration of retail space on the Romanian market, with one square metre of retail space per capita, reveals a survey by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. In the wake of the opening of three new shopping centres over one year in Suceava (Shopping City, Iulius Mall and Galleria), lettable retail space reached almost 120,000 square metres, while the number of inhabitants is slightly above 106,000. This means there are 1,052 square metres of retail area per 1,000 inhabitants in Suceava, while in Bucharest there are 247, in Budapest 321, and in Warsaw 610. The city with the second largest concentration of retail space in Romania is Pitesti, with 799 square metres per 1,000 inhabitants, following the opening of shopping centres Euromall, Iris Shopping Center and Jupiter City over the last few years. This ranking, valid for March this year, also includes the cities of Deva (503 square metres/1,000 inhabitants), Oradea (490), Targu Mures (481), Bacau (434) and Cluj-Napoca (434). According to market information, these cities could in fact see the first resounding failures as far as shopping centres are concerned. Internationally, Romania ranked fifth in Europe last year in terms of recently completed shopping facilities, with over 720,000 square metres, less than Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Spain, but more than Italy, Poland, the UK, Germany and France, according to the same source. Considering the number of projects announced, the stock of commercial space could continue to see an accelerated growth, but with the financial crisis affecting most of the developers, these projects are more often than not either running late or being put off.