The stock of retail space in Romania will increase by 50 hectares by the end of next year, which puts it among the top ten countries in Europe. This is what a survey by real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle found.

The growth pace on this dynamic segment of the real estate market exceeds the levels recorded in France, Belgium, Sweden and Hungary, but is lower than in Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, Poland and Turkey.

With the average mall taking up 30,000 square metres, this means that on average there will be about 15 malls built throughout the entire country.

However, if relating the existing stock on the market to the number of inhabitants, Romania ranks 18th among the 19 markets surveyed, ahead of only Russia, a market which in turn is expected to develop significantly in this department by the end of next year.

"At least ten malls will be completed by the end of next year, but the market is far from saturated, at least outside of Bucharest. There are still many big cities overlooked by developers," says Luiza Moraru, the manager of the retail department of the real estate consultancy company Eurisko.

Mall developers have changed focus from the developed markets in Western Europe to the South, Central and to the East of Europe, where countries like Turkey and Russia will see the number of retail spaces go up by more than 50% by the end of next year.

Italy is the country where most malls will be built by late 2007. The United Kingdom has the largest supply of malls of all, while the Netherlands and Sweden have the largest number of retail outlets in malls compared with the number of inhabitants.

As far as Romania is concerned, developers are now looking at cities where the population numbers roughly between 100,000 and 200,000 people and that can accommodate one or two modern retail centres. The first malls in the country w