Store rates to tumble this year after peaking in 2019
After the commercial property market peaked last year in Greece, climbing to its highest point of the last decade-and-a-half, the coronavirus pandemic is reversing the picture for store and office spaces, that are seeing rates nosedive.
The Bank of Greece said on Thursday that store prices enjoyed a 7% rise in 2019, following a 4.6% increase in 2018. The advance was even greater last year in the main cities of Athens (8%) and Thessaloniki (9.4%). The rise in store rental rate was significantly smaller, at 1.3% across Greece, 0.3% in Athens and 1.1% in Thessaloniki.
However, following the onslaught of the coronavirus and the lockdown, the picture in retail commerce is a far cry from that of 2019. An analysis by the Proprius - Cushman & Wakefield property service company projects that both store values and rental rates will record a decline for the rest of the year.
“Most commercial chains will postpone their network expansion plans, except for supermarkets. At the same time, stores and malls will face stiff competition from the growth of e-commerce,” it noted in its analysis.
