New research from Colliers CRE shows that the UK shopping centre development pipeline for the next five years has fallen by 8 per cent, or 4.3m sq ft. The total amount of shopping centre floorspace scheduled for completion between 2008 and 2013 currently stands at just 46.7m sq ft, compared to 51m sq ft at this time last year.

This is now only 3m sq ft of new shopping centre floorspace due for completion in 2009 and only two developments of any magnitude: Hammerson’s Union Square in Aberdeen and Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres’ St David’s 2 in Cardiff.

According to the researchers, twelve months there was ago almost 11m sq ft in the pipeline for 2010. Now this has slipped by over a half to just under 5.2 million sq ft. This suggests that a large proportion of schemes have been delayed by around two years in light of the current uncertainty in the retail market.

Greg Styles, head of retail at Colliers CRE, said: “Schemes that are in the pipeline for the next few years are suffering from a lack of retailer demand and those retailers that are interested are able to have the upper hand, with developers needing to offer increasingly better incentive packages in order to secure a deal.

“It is little wonder that developers are questioning the financial viability of new centres and postponing construction until the market bottoms out.”

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