Kyiv has been living in war conditions for almost a year.

During this time, shopping centers have radically changed their mode of operation.

Some of them have become real "Points of Invincibility" for Kyiv residents, where you can not only buy something, but also charge your phones, work, eat and just warm up.

The website TSN.ua found out what is currently happening in the commercial and office real estate market with Evgenia Loktionova, director of the Ukrainian trade guild UTG.

Yevgenia Loktionova, director of the Ukrainian trade guild UTG

The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost a year now, what is the situation with shopping malls in Kyiv, how many of them were forced to stop working?

With the beginning of the war in Ukraine, almost all shopping centers in Kyiv were forced to close, except for those in which critically important food stores, pharmacies and pet stores were partially left open.

Some of the shopping centers were damaged.

Among them: shopping centers Lavina Mall and Retroville, which were partially destroyed by the enemy.

Already at the end of April 2022, the resumption of the work of shopping centers in Kyiv began.

In particular, after partial reconstruction, the Retroville shopping center opened in June of last year.

What are the losses in the shopping center from anxiety and what about the shelters

How many shopping centers in Kyiv are equipped with reliable shelters?

And is it advisable to build new shopping centers with bomb shelters?

Several metropolitan shopping centers have shelters, for example, Gulliver shopping center.

So, at present, the concepts of shopping centers are already being developed with shelters.

Air alarms in Kyiv last for several hours.

Do you know what damages are caused to the shopping center in one hour of an air raid?

Of course, the losses from the air raid are caused by the capital's shopping centers.

But their sizes are very different.

Depending on the volume of the shopping center and its success in work.

Shopping center visits have decreased: reasons

How much has the number of visits to shopping malls in Kyiv decreased during the year of the war?

Are there any where attendance has not decreased?

Why exactly?

During the first months of the hostilities, shopping centers were partially closed, and attendance at the end of the first quarter of 2022 dropped to a historic low of 291 people.

The expulsion of enemy troops from the territory of Kyiv region returned the population to the capital and led to the opening of commercial real estate, and attendance gradually began to recover, reaching a mark of 362 people at the beginning of 2023.

At the same time, district format shopping centers, in the structure of which there is a smaller number of international large-format department stores, demonstrate greater stability in terms of attendance - for them, this indicator reaches 496 people.

But for regional facilities, it is only 274 people.

However, the least prone to fluctuations in the market are the centers of the district format, which differ in the concentration of goods and services in everyday demand.

They say that people in the capital have stopped going to shopping centers, namely men, because summonses are handed out at the entrances.

Is this really one of the reasons?

No, it's more like fiction.

The main reason for the decrease in visits is another, namely: anxiety that lasts up to 5 hours, a decrease in the purchasing mood of citizens, a decrease in the purchasing power of the population, and also a large vacancy in some shopping centers, in particular due to the closed flow-forming department stores.

For example, such as Zara, HM.

Lack of personnel and mobilization

In general, how did the mobilization affect the work of the capital's shopping centers?

Is there a shortage of personnel in this connection, perhaps you know the statistics?

Yes, there is a shortage of personnel.

This is a difficult topic for the soul.

There is a staff reservation, but at the end of 2022, its conditions were changed.

There are no statistics on staff shortages.

But it exists.

Especially among the technical staff of shopping centers.

Are new shopping and entertainment centers being built in Kyiv now, during the war?

Shopping centers in Kyiv are being built, but at a slower pace than before the war.

For example, in November 2022, the Lake Plaza shopping center with a total area of ​​34,000 m2 was opened.

A crisis is brewing in the office real estate market

How is the situation in the office real estate market of the capital.

How was this market segment affected by the war?

It is said that due to frequent power outages, many clients were forced to refuse to rent office space, is this true?

The companies of the information technology segment, which developed Ukrainian office real estate in 2016-2021, have already demonstrated a significant slowdown in the dynamics of development, a reduction in demand and a decrease in the absorption of office space (the process began back in 2020-2021 due to the transfer of part of the staff to remote mode of operation.

And the military actions in the country further strengthened this negative trend.

Thus, according to the results of last year, the reduction in the number of personnel amounted to -3.1%.

Despite the annual influx of new entrants into IT (~10-12 thousand people from among graduates of universities, IT schools, courses, seminars), the number of employees in the industry as of January 2023 is estimated at 275,595 specialists.

At the same time, about 14% of employees were evacuated abroad and continue to remain there.

Even some of them do not plan to return to Ukraine and use the possibilities of relocation to foreign offices.

The most popular countries for this are: Poland, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Spain and Turkey.

Therefore, long-term lease contracts for office space that were not concluded at the beginning of the war have now been put on hold for an indefinite period.

And before the end of hostilities in Ukraine, a reduction in business activity, low operating indicators in most companies, significant rationalization of the expenditure part (economy) and relocation to more affordable office centers are expected.

Further optimization (reduction) of occupied space, transfer of employees of the largest Ukrainian corporations from rented premises to their own administrative real estate, closing of unclaimed representative offices is also predicted.

We will remind you that the greatest demand in Kyiv is for one-room apartments, they are in the first place among the signed sales agreements.

In second place are three-room apartments.

Two-room apartments are the least popular.

Read also:

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"For short people": in Kyiv, a tiny "apartment" is rented out for 4.3 thousand hryvnias (photo)

How the cost of one "square" of housing has changed: prices in different districts of Kyiv