Retailers and shopping centre operators are starting to adapt their business models to the changing consumer behaviour. For now, it seems that retailers that are able to create a true omnichannel approach are outperforming their competitors. Walter Wolfler, Senior Director, Head of Retail Austria & CEE at CBRE talked to Property Forum about the future of retail.

Atrium European Real Estate Limited has signed an agreement to acquire Wars Sawa Junior, a prime retail asset located in the heart of Warsaw and in its most prominent high street retail area, for a consideration of €301.5 million. Atrium is to acquire Wars Sawa Junior from PFCEE, a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, using a mixture of existing cash resources and external financing.

The rate of shopping centre development in Europe is slowing, with completions down 23% year-on-year at 3.8 million sqm 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest European Shopping Centres report.

More than 180,000 sqm of retail space was added to the Polish retail market in H1 2018 and another 330,000 sqm is expected to be completed by year-end 2018. This will represent an increase of over 25% year-on-year, bringing Poland’s total retail stock to more than 14,800,000 sqm. The new supply will be concentrated in cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 40% of this year’s openings. Cushman & Wakefield has published another edition of its MarketBeat report.

The overall European logistics yield dropped 14bps to 5.95% in Q2 2018, the first time it has fallen below 6% since Cushman & Wakefield began consistently tracking the three main property sectors in 1992, according to the firm’s DNA of Real Estate report.

Bucharest’s Floreasca/Barbu Vacarescu area is the most valuable fusion between retail and office spaces. According to Colliers International Romania, for every 1,000 sqm of offices, there is 35-40 sqm of retail space. In total, in the Floreasca/Barbu Vacarescu area, there is about 10,000 sqm of such spaces at the ground floor of the office buildings, with the rents generated by these holding a share of 4-5% of the total cashed in by landlords.

MOM Park, a 50,000 sqm prime shopping mall and office property in Budapest was sold by a consortium of a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, Hungarian developer and investor Wing and Austrian shopping centre specialist CC Real to OTP Real Estate Investment Fund. The mall had been acquired in 2015 by the consortium, and since then significant investments have been made in the building enhancing its value as a property and a business.

Retail deliveries in Romania will return to a positive trend in the second half of 2018, when at least 90,000 square meters will be delivered in four cities, with no openings scheduled for Bucharest, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Savills became the property manager of the Zgorzelec Plaza shopping and entertainment centre owned by the M7 Real Estate fund.

In June 2018, Mint Investments successfully completed the acquisition of the shopping centre Breda & Weinstein in Opava from Avestus Capital Partners. The value of the transaction exceeded €60 million. Mint Investments originally developed and later asset managed this shopping centre for Avestus Capital Partners.