Russia has the largest shopping centre development pipeline in Europe by some distance, with approximately 4 million m² due for completion in 2007-2008, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s new Shopping Centre Development Report.

Turkey is in second place with 2.2 million sq m, just ahead of Italy (also 2.2 million m²) and Poland (1.9 million m²). The UK is placed seventh in Europe in terms of 2007-2008 completions, with 1.63 million m² expected, which is on a par with Germany and Spain.

Neville Moss, Head of European Retail Research at Jones Lang LaSalle commented: “As expected, emerging and maturing markets dominate new development – Russia and Turkey will account for one third of all new space in 2007-2008. The exception to this is Germany. Although a mature market in terms of evolution, Germany’s shopping centre stock is relatively old and stock per head is still low. The current development programme will increase the level of high quality retail provision in city centre locations with the focus on small and medium sized schemes.”

One of the new shopping developements in Turkey: Forum Mersin in Mersin, developed by Multi Turkmall. Developers and retailers are now targeting the regions in Russia. In the Millionniki (regional cities with a population of one million and over), stock is expected to rise from 1 million m² today to 3.4 million m² by 2008. Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Kazan and Yekaterinburg remain retail hotspots, but Novosibirsk, Ufa, and Rostov will also see strong retail provision growth.

Over the next two years more than 60 new centres are scheduled to open in Turkey. The main share of the pipeline (43 schemes) will be developed in Istanbul and Ankara but regional markets are gaining in importance, with another 18 schemes due for completion in cities such as Bursa, Izmir and Antalya