site.btaBulgaria’s Dynamic Retail Space Market Shows Steady Growth, Analysis Shows

The Bulgarian retail property market remains dynamic, with steady growth driven mainly by new and expanded retail park projects, data from Cushman & Wakefield | Forton showed on Tuesday.

Between April and June, newly operational retail space increased by 30% compared to the first quarter, reaching 25,152 sq.m, entirely in retail parks, boosted by the partial opening of Parkmaxx Plovdiv and Retail Park Rakovski, and the expansion of XOPark Sofia.

The total supply in the retail park segment has reached 621,000 sq.m across 61 locations nationwide. Space under construction decreased to 159,000 sq.m across 14 sites, while another 175,000 sq.m are in the planning stage. Projections show retail parks will exceed 700,000 sq.m by the end of 2025 and 800,000 sq.m by the end of 2026, overtaking shopping malls in leasable area.

“Investments in retail parks remain strong and are expected to surpass malls in size by 2026 due to their flexible format, lower operating costs, and suitability for smaller cities,” said Yavor Kostov, Managing Partner at Cushman & Wakefield | Forton.

Demand also rose by 12% quarter-on-quarter, with 75 new stores and nearly 34,000 sq.m of newly leased space. Malls accounted for 59% of the new deals and 43% of the leased space, while retail parks covered the rest. Fashion retailers led activity with almost 8,000 sq.m, followed by electronics (6,000 sq.m) and value chains like KiK, Pepco, and Tedi (over 4,000 sq.m).

Vacancy levels in both malls and retail parks remain low. Prime rents in Sofia malls rose to EUR 46/sq.m, while retail park rents stayed stable at EUR 13/sq.m. Yields held steady at 7.5% for malls, with a slight decline to 7.25% for retail parks, reflecting the segment’s growing momentum.