Along with an overall decrease in investment volume across Europe over the first half of the year, retailers are also experiencing economic headwinds, as sales grew by just 9.8 percent, down from 12.3 percent seen in the first half of of 2011. The Polish retail market saw relatively few large projects delivered over the first half, with growing interest in smaller markets recently coming from the developers. A total of 132,000 sqm of new retail space was introduced to the market in H1 2012, driving the country’s retail stock up to 7.8m sqm. The space delivered in H1 2012 to Poland was shared between five projects, the biggest of which was Korona Kielce mall (34,000 sqm). This was followed (in terms of size) by the 32,500 sqm NoVa Park scheme in Gorzów.
Growing demand in cities with populations of below 200,000 has seen vacancy rates in these locations fall over the first six months of the year. In the city of Toruń, just 7 percent of the city’s retail stock is unused currently, down from the 10 percent that was available in Q1.
