No one is safe

“Was it really plausible that Latvia could support more retail space per capita than France?” – wonders n 2009 our retail team was still busy. The retail market was one that did manage to remain stable. From the tenants’ perspective, except for a couple of bankruptcies, nothing changed significantly – leasing activity remained at a healthy level, even in countries that have been hit harder by the credit crunch. In addition to this, three large shopping centres were opened in the last quarter in Poland, Romania and Hungary: Bonarka in Kraków, AFI Palace Cotroceni in Bucharest and Allee in Budapest. All of these are now fully-leased. Retail sales are relatively stable in Poland, while there is a more fragmented picture in the rest of the CEE region, where there has been between 1 pct and 20 pct declines – but the market is now showing signs of bouncing back. There remain, however, concerns over the spending power of consumers, especially in Eastern E