Poland’s retail developers have been focusing mainly on the country’s small and medium-sized markets, according to a recent survey from Knight Frank, which points out that 63 percent of all retail projects currently underway are going up in these locations. This is also in line with tenant demand, as a growing number of new brands are debuting on smaller markets.
“Developers are shifting more to the smaller markets in response to growing restrictions on large-scale retail investments in Poland’s biggest cities. This includes both market limitations within a highly competitive environment and a substantial oversupply of retail space and a limited amount of available retail plots,” says Agnieszka Mielcarz, head of retail asset management at Knight Frank’s Polish office. She adds that one of the key challenges for retail development in bigger cities remains poor policy decisions made by local governments.
