Although attendance at shopping malls dropped by 26% yoy last year, overall retail sales were up 7.6% for the first 11 months of 2020

Although attendance at shopping malls dropped by 26% yoy last year, overall retail sales were up 7.6% for the first 11 months of 2020, reports NAI Ukraine, the commercial real estate consulting company. Alarmed by the coronavirus quarantine controls, many shopping center developers pushed off openings to 2021: stage two of the Blockbuster Mall – 55,000 square meters; Ocean Mall – 99,000; the stage two of April – 47,000; and White Lines – 21,000. With these four expansions alone – 222,000 square meters – rents will remain soft and the retail vacancy rate is expected to rise above its current level of 10%, NAI predicts in its study.