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News Release from: EC Harris | Subject: Cost of building shopping centres in the UK
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 November 2006
UK shopping centre costs highest in
Europe
Cost of building shopping centres in the UK is the highest in Europe, according to research by EC Harris.
The cost of building shopping centres in the UK is the highest in Europe, according to research by EC Harris The findings in the international consultancy's latest European Focus show that Switzerland and the Netherlands are close behind the UK, with Ireland and Sweden in the second tier of costs
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 21 Jan 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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In Eastern Europe construction costs in countries, such as Bulgaria, are a fraction of the costs in Romania and Bulgaria, but even in these locations localised overheating of the construction industry is pushing up costs.
Even so, in places such as Romania, the compression of yields has happened extremely fast compacting 10 years of value growth into two years.
However, EC Harris points out that in the developing countries of Eastern Europe, the level of specification and urban integration is often lower than in the more developed markets of Western Europe.
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There are 450 million potential consumers within the European Union and the design of shopping centres is changing to meet their requirements.
Commenting on this change, Mike Pearce, Senior European Partner for EC Harris, said: "The perception of shopping centre development has changed over the past decade.
In the UK the challenge is to integrate mixed use development skills and the needs of city centre regeneration, while across much of mainland Europe the trend has been towards large edge of town shopping centres that have grown in size significantly over the period".
He added, "Mega centres are being developed in Russia, Turkey and Central Europe which can be measured in hundreds of thousands of square metres.
Several, of which, are linked to offices and hotel schemes whilst others are centred upon specific urban focuses such as railway stations.
"In Central Europe and the emerging regions further east there has been a rush to fill the retail 'gap' in the market.
This rush has lead to significant returns for the initial pioneers into Central Europe who moved at a fast pace and these same developers are now reaching further east where the potential is viewed as considerable.
However, the pressure to develop such schemes quickly in new markets brings with it a number of risks".
The European Focus provides figures showing a range of benchmark costs, in Euros per m2, for a typical shopping centre development with comfort cooling.
The figures are based on EC Harris' own data and are indicative of pricing levels across Europe.
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