The market quota in shopping centres and parks in the retail sector remained at 17.8% and the average sale per visitor grew by 2.1% last year, according to figures presented today by the President of the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres and Parks, (AECC), Javier Hortelano de la Lastra.
The estimated number of visitors was 1,935 million, an increase of 1.5% compared to last year, according to data from the association.
Investment per transaction in shopping centres and parks in development totalled 2,000 million euros in 2016, maintaining its position as the most active sector in the Spanish real estate market with 19 current transactions involving both national and international investors.
The importance of this sector to the economic activity of the country is also evident in the employment generated. With six new centres opened in 2016, 4,500 new jobs were created. At present, there are 550 shopping centres and parks in Spain, with a total GLA of 15,595,800m2 and a total of 33,500 merchants. Between 2017 and 2019 there are 27 new projects being planned, both new openings and enlargements, totalling more than 1,314,000 m2 of new commercial space, of which 974,000 correspond to expansion and remodelling and 340,000 in new projects.
For Javier Hortelano de la Lastra, President of the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres and Parks, the sector is the key to the consolidation of the Spanish economy, “due to the fact that in 2016 growth continued, as much in sales as in the influx of new centres and in the creation of employment.”. Regarding sales, Hortelano expects that “the trend for increased sales will continue to consolidate in 2017 in line with similar growth in previous years.
The president of the AECC stressed the leading role of shopping centres and parks in real estate in the country, “shopping centres are every single day the leaders in investment transactions in tertiary assets with 45% of completed transactions”.