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.

Percentage of Retail Markets in Various Parts of Their Cycles, by Region


Euro­pean cities that ben­e­fit from both strong local retail spend­ing and high tourism offer promis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for high street and oth­er retail investments.