Summarizing the Serbian retail real estate market (shopping centres, retail parks, department stores and other specific facilities) Confluence Property Management (CPM) can say that it achieved moderate growth in 2018.
The total area for rent in Serbia covered by retail outlets larger than 5,000m² is close to the figure of 1,000,000m² and currently stands at 962,293m². Market centres today account for 39% of the area, retail parks 27.6%, department stores 9.1% and other types of buildings 24.3%. And in the next couple of years, you can expect an increase in the presence of modern shopping centres, which will certainly contribute to the level of market development.
Belgrade remains a centre for retail real estate, and such a trend will continue in the future. It has a little more than half a million m² or slightly more than 55% of the total space in retail real estate in Serbia.
Representation of shopping malls in Belgrade is more significant compared to Serbia, and they account for 45% of the total retail space. The above-mentioned increase in the number of shopping centres will be played in Belgrade as a whole and will bring an indication of the density of the retail space to the level of about 230m² per 1,000 inhabitants, which will bring Belgrade closer to the difficulty reaching Budapest and Sofia.
This significant increase in competition will surely force all relevant market participants to find new ways to make their facilities successful. We anticipate that some of the areas important for successful business operations in this dynamic period will be excellent customer knowledge and interaction with them, as well as even better and longer-term relationships with tenants.