Volume of retail projects in Romania to hit record this year

With scheduled deliveries of around 260,000 square meters of modern retail projects, 2023  may turn out to have the heaviest pipeline calendar since 2011, more than triple the deliveries in 2022, according to the annual report published by Colliers. Most retail categories registered good results in 2022 and the profitability level in Romania remains one of the highest in the European Union, the real estate consultancy form points out. 2022 saw limited deliveries of new modern retail projects, adding to the overall existing retail surface only 77,000 square meters, about half the initially estimated delivery and a substantial decrease from the 102,000 square meters recorded in 2021,  This is the second lowest figure in almost two decades. Currently, Romania has a total modern retail stock of approximately 4.1 million square meters, out of which over 2.7 million square meters are in shopping centres and the rest mainly in retail parks. Over 60% of the total modern retail area is concentrated in the top 10 largest cities, with above 200,000 inhabitants, although we expect the gap to reduce once the projects announced for the next 2 years will be delivered, most of them retail parks in the small and medium-sized cities.