Redefining Retail: The Changing Landscape of Shopping Centres and Retail Parks in Poland 

The Polish retail real estate market is currently undergoing a structural transformation that extends far beyond the visible growth of retail parks. 

Changes in consumer behaviour, tenant strategies, and capital allocation are reshaping the way both shopping centres and convenience formats operate within a single ecosystem. As a result, we are no longer witnessing merely a market recovery, but a fundamental redefinition of the sector. 

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Poland’s retail market underwent a process of recalibration. Since 2022, we have observed a redefinition of physical retail in terms of: 

Before 2020, the market was dominated by scale. Large shopping centres accounted for approximately 75% of the modern retail stock and attracted the majority of investment activity, while retail parks were regarded as a complementary format. Today, this hierarchy is changing. 

At the end of 2024, shopping centres still represented 78% of total gross leasable area (GLA); however, new supply was already being driven by retail parks. In the first half of 2024, retail parks accounted for the majority of newly delivered retail space, and by 2025 the total stock of modern retail space exceeded 15 million sq m of GLA (including convenience formats). This represents a genuine structural shift.