2025 Global Outlook – The Retail Sector

The retail sector has spent much of the past decade “rightsizing” itself in many countries and is currently bearing the fruits of that elongated and, in many cases, painful transition. As a result, changing market dynamics and evolving consumer behavior have created attractive opportunities for those who recognize this shift and are no longer redlining the property sector due to the perceived threat of e‑commerce or the impact of economic downturns.
Across the regions, the retail opportunity appears greatest in Europe and North America as shown in the chart below, but strong fundamentals in the latter adds to the confidence of making investments in the sector while European retail fundamentals are still in the process of sorting themselves out.
European cities that benefit from both strong local retail spending and high tourism offer promising opportunities for high street and other retail investments.