Riding out the e-commerce storm

Alex Hayes, Eurobuild CEE: What is happening with retail yields across the region? Jeff Alson, head of CEE capital markets, Cushman & Wakefield: They’re not compressing, is the short answer. They’re probably best described as inconsistent in the sense that they are polarising between the very best dominant schemes in the region and the less dominant weaker or secondary schemes. Sentiment towards the retail sector is in a malaise and there is a period of uncertainty. That is being reflected in investors’ appetites for the sector and we are seeing this across Europe generally. Probably the CEE region is the part of Europe that is faring best because the underlying performance of the centres tends to outshine elsewhere in Europe. The capital base focused on Central Europe includes more local capital than perhaps the rest of Europe, which still has some appetite for retail, and thus helping to support the market. And this is keeping a degree of competition in the mar