This is the highest value since the Spanish Association of Centers and Commercial Parks (AECC) registers the data, as reported today, at a press conference, the President of this association, Javier Hortelano de la Lastra. With this growth in sales, market share has increased slightly, reaching 17.9%. The number of visitors to the shopping centers and commercial parks remains stable around the 1,900 million visits in 2017.
Another of the highlights in the activity of the sector during the year 2017, is the investment for transactions in shopping centers and commercial parks in operation. 29 transactions were carried out, affecting 36 assets, reaching an investment volume of €2,700 million, which represents a growth of 35% in comparison with 2016. 70% of this amount corresponds to international investors and 80% have been investments in core assets.
According to Javier Hortelano de la Lastra, president of the AECC, "the good moment of the investment is not only a matter of quantity but also of quality, since the operations have affected all kind of assets and new actors have been incorporated as international funds and investors who come to this market for the first time." In 2017 was paid the highest value in history for a shopping center in Spain, the Madrid Xanadú, which reached €530 million.
The prospect for 2018 is to keep the pace of investment in transactions. "This year will be very much in line with 2017. The activity of the shopping centers and commercial parks should increase between 2% and 3%," says Javier Hortelano, who recalled that so far this year they have closed four operations (Parque Corredor, Modoo, Plaza Imperial and Rivas Futura) totaling more than €300 million.