Shanghai named world's leading city for shopping centre construction
Shanghai market robust with rising rents and vacancy rates while second-tier cities such as Shenyang and Wuxi face oversupply risk
Eight of the 10 busiest cities for shopping centre construction around the world are in China, according to property firm CBRE, which warns that Shenyang and Wuxi are at high risk of suffering from oversupply.
In its latest Marketscore report, which focuses on the mainland's retail market, it said Shanghai was leading the world in building shopping centres, with 3.3 million square metres under construction, followed by Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, with 3.2 million sq metres.
It said Shenyang was "one of the first cities in China where the retail market has become exposed to oversupply risk".
Shenyang's total retail stock amounted to 5.1 million sq metres at the end of June, the most in any second-tier city.
"By the end of the second quarter of this year, the overall vacancy rate in Shenyang stood at 19 per cent, a relatively high figure compared to other major cities in China," the report, released yesterday, said.
The study said Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou offered the brightest prospects for investors in retail real estate, while advising investors to exercise caution when considering opportunities in second-tier cities such as Shenyang and Wuxi.
The new report, which follows a Marketscore report released in January focusing on the mainland's office market, analyses 17 city markets in terms of 14 key indicators that influence the performance of the retail property market.