China a mall monster

Friday, April 25, 2014

China, especially Shanghai, has the largest amount of shopping area under construction in the world, a survey by international property consultants CBRE has found.

In fact, eight out of the top 10 most active cities are in China, it said yesterday. CBRE surveyed 180 countries. About 9.8 million square meters of new retail space were opened in 2013 globally and a further 39 million sq m was under construction.

Shanghai took the lead by having 3.3 million sq m under construction as of January 31, 2014.

Chengdu ranked second with 3.2 million sq m, followed by Shenzhen and Tianjin which have 2.7 million sq m and 2.5 million sq m under construction respectively.

Kuala Lumpur is just outside the top 10 while Hong Kong's ranking is also low, with less than 400,000 sq m.

CBRE Retail executive director Sebastian Skiff said the scale of new development in Asia and China is staggering.

"Chinese economic growth has some signs of slowing down and mainland cities present a physical environment that lends itself to environment-controlled shopping centers," he said.

KAREN CHIU

Originally posted here:
China a mall monster