In Q3 2020, as much as 25,000 sqm of retail space was delivered to the Polish market, the consulting company Colliers International said. There are still 305,000 sqm of GLA under construction, of which approx. 100,000 sqm is to be completed in the fourth quarter. Thus, 2020 will close with supply at the level of 250,000 sqm of GLA (approx. 10 percent less than last year. In Poland, we already have 532 shopping centers with a total area of ​​12.2 million sqm of GLA. At the end of Q3 2020, the saturation level was 316 sqm / 1,000 people.

Most of 25,000 sqm of new supply in Q3 2020, consisted of the construction and expansion of small shopping centers and retail parks with a convenience store profile, which are currently the fastest growing segment of the market. The largest new investment completed in this period was the Vendo Park retail park in Częstochowa.

"The coronavirus pandemic has made people focus even more on the neighborhood they live in, hence the steadily growing popularity of small shopping facilities. Therefore, tenants are more and more willing to look for commercial space in residential estates. We can also see that the condition of shopping centers returns to normal much faster in such locations," Marta Cegielnik, expert in the Retail Agency at Colliers International, said.

According to the data of the Polish Council of Shopping Centers (PRCH), the footfall of shopping centers in September remained at a similar level as in August this year, and averaged 81 percent of  last year. Small and medium-sized commercial facilities recorded better results by several percentage points, and commercial properties with large and very large areas recorded a slightly lower footfall than the September average.

"Many chains optimize their portfolios by systematically reducing the number of brick-and-mortar stores. An example is the Empik Group, which has closed its store, among others, in the Centrum Department Stores in Warsaw," Katarzyna Michnikowska, director of the Advisory and Market Research Department at Colliers International, pointed out.

(WBJ)