The Applicability of the Shopping Centre Concept to Middle and Eastern Europe - The Example of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic

A decade has passed since the fall of the iron curtain. Retail markets in Middle and Eastern European Countries (MEE) undergo significant changes. Western real estate developers enter these markets and start to construct retail space according to their standards and concepts. Nevertheless the concept of the city-integrated shopping centre has only been built during the last few years. As the development of shopping centres in Eastern The Applicability of the Shopping Centre Concept to Middle and Eastern Europe page 2 Germany after the reunification has shown, especially the non-integrated shopping centres can pose serious problems to the cities and their real estate markets. This paper investigates whether western retail concepts such as shopping centres are likely to be successful in MEE and which adjustments to the concept may have to be made. To limit the scope of the investigation we focus on shopping centres in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. First a brief overview is given of the general economic environment with respect to retail trade in the subject countries. Then the history of shopping centre development in these countries is lined out. After that we report key findings on success factors for shopping centres. These findings originate from interviews and surveys among the target group of retail development companies in the Western European shopping centre development sector. The conclusion of this paper is that the concept of shopping centres is generally applicable to the countries in MEE. However, attention has to be paid to cultural preferences and economic possibilities and limitations of the population.