Small cities attracting shopping center developers

There are currently 1200 square meters of shopping centers for every 1000 Poles and the number of centers in cities with over 40,000 inhabitants is roughly the same as the EU average. Due to this, development companies are now focusing on smaller cities. They say that the inhabitants there earn more and want to spend more. According to researcher Jones Lang LaSalle, cities such as Bialystok, Kielce and Rzeszów already have 848,000 square meters of shopping centers on average with a further 433,000 square meters being built. They also have plans to build 545,000 more. If these come to fruition then the market saturation in smaller cities will be the same as in their larger counterparts. The average salary in large cities is zl.2728 per month while in smaller cities it hovers around zl.2275. Despite this gap, smaller cities are attractive for development companies. Especially since many well known brands, particularly clothing companies, are waiting to enter the market in smaller cities. H&M and C&A have plans to open outlets in new shopping centers. (Rzeczpospolita, Dec.2-3, p. B3)