Bangkok retail market recovered from floods

Home business Bangkok retail market recovered from floods

Bangkok Retail

The Nation June 21, 2012 1:00 am

CBRE measured the level of shopping-centre development in 180 of the world's major cities to identify the most active markets, both in terms of 2011 completions and space currently under construction.

The research found that development activity had reached significant levels, with 29.6 million square metres under construction globally - equivalent to all the combined existing space in France, the United Kingdom and Germany - while 7.8 million square metres of new space opened last year.

Emerging markets such as China, Turkey and India are far more active than the more mature markets of Western Europe and North America.

Last year, new shopping centres opened in 63 of the cities covered in the survey, of which 50 were in emerging markets. In contrast, only five cites in Western Europe saw the opening of a new centre.

"In Bangkok, the retail market saw a full recovery from the floods of 2011. All retail stores closed during the floods were reopened and retail sales improved," said James Pitchon, executive director - head of CBRE Research in Thailand.

"The two key trends are community malls in Bangkok and expansion of major retail developers to upcountry; CPN, the country's leading retail property developer with a 22-per-cent market share of leasable area of Bangkok's shopping malls, plans to open five new malls upcountry within this year."

The company said the total retail supply in Bangkok as of the first quarter of this year had risen to 5.75 million square metres, an increase of 1 per cent from the final quarter of last year and 5 per cent from the same period a year ago, with the majority of new additions in the community mall format.

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Bangkok retail market recovered from floods