Rising vacancy in the Netherlands, Pop Up Shops on the rise.
The Netherlands faced its own rather upsetting year in 2014 as retail space vacancies continued to grow in conjunction with the bankruptcy of a few major store chains.
By the end of the year, it was reported that 2.45 million square meters were up for grabs with 8% of them abandoned. To make matters worse, it was discovered that consumers had decreased their overall spending. However, it seemed that this problem was mainly an issue for small- and medium-sized towns as large cities managed to remain stable.
For the fourth year in a row, rent decreased. In addition, asking prices remained lower than rent, giving hope that a low has not yet been achieved. Better yet, though, is the fact that retail stock is still rising. The unfortunate effect of this, though, is that it has been spurning on a supply increase of 9%. Real estate continues to build stores, flooding the economy with goods that the region is spending less and less on. While this remains a large issues in the smaller cities, it seems the bigger locations are finally starting to level out their supply and demand balance.
As for the future? Though shoppers are expected to start spending more, experts are predicting a continued disconnect, resulting in the upswing of vacancies and supply leading to overall price drops save for key locations in key cities.