The weighted average vacancy rate in shopping centers in Kyiv has almost doubled — from 11.5% in 2021 to 21.5% by the end of 2022, the Director of the Ukrainian Trade Guild (UTG) Evgenia Loktionova told Interfax-Ukraine. “The increase in vacancy in shopping galleries in Kyiv and most regions of Ukraine is caused by a number of circumstances, all of which are related to the war. Retailers associated with Russia have completely left the market, there is not a sufficient range of alternative foreign department stores on the vacated area …

Some of the large-format international operators (Inditex, H&M, IKEA) have decided to freeze their work until the end of hostilities,” she explained.

The expert predicts the continuation of the trend of network optimization with a reduction in the number of stores in 2023. “Retailers will focus their attention exclusively on profitable facilities and close unprofitable ones,” Loktionova said.

In general, according to her, vacancy in shopping centers will continue to grow, especially in large-scale facilities of regional (by the end of 2022 — 30.9%) and district (19.2%) formats.

Source: finance.ua