Dubai 2nd most preferred city for international retailers

CBRE's annual survey mapped the global footprint of 326 of the world's top retailers across more than 200 cities to identify trends in global retail expansion at national and local levels.

After sharing the top spot with London last year, Dubai narrowly missed out to the UK capital this year, attracting 53.8% of all international retail brands surveyed. London, which claimed the outright number one position with 55.5%, benefited from a mini-boom in 2011 as tourist spending boosted a relatively robust local economy, and remains a key hub for retailers looking to expand into Europe, CBRE said. London has finished first or joint first each year since the survey was launched five years ago.

While Dubai still holds considerable global pulling power, it dropped into second position due to a handful of retailers exiting the market, CBRE said. Still, Dubai ranked first as a target market for European and Asia Pacific retailers while it rated second as a target market for American retailers.

H.E. Hamad Buamim, Director General, Dubai Chamber, said, "Retail has been one of the fastest growing industries and one of the leading drivers of economic growth in the UAE in recent years as the rising population and urbanisation, expatriate wealth, strong household consumption and modern retail concepts, as well as a thriving tourism sector, continue to provide ideal conditions for growth. The findings of the CBRE report further cement Dubai's position as a truly international business and leisure destination."

Middle East markets continue to attract an increasing number of international retailers, competing with established global retail centres, the survey noted. Riyadh retained key position in the top 20 of most targeted retail destinations, while Kuwait City moved up CBRE's ranking by four places to number eight, ahead of many established destinations.

Speaking on the report from a regional perspective, HE Hamad Buamim, Director General, Dubai Chamber, said: "Retail has been one of the fastest growing industries and one of the leading drivers of economic growth in the UAE in recent years as the rising population and urbanisation, expatriate wealth, strong household consumption and modern retail concepts, as well as a thriving tourism sector, continue to provide ideal conditions for growth. The findings of the CBRE report further cement Dubai's position as a truly international business and leisure destination."

Worldwide, New York (43.9%) remains in third position amongst cities, while Moscow (43.7%) moves up the rankings following a number of new market entrants in 2011 to join Paris (43.7%) in fourth position ahead of Hong Kong (40.5%).

When looking at the most targeted countries by global retailers, the UK holds onto first position in the rankings closely followed by the UAE (53.1%) and the United States (50.3%). Spain is in fourth position (47.5%), closely followed by China (47.2%), with France and Germany (46.9%) joint sixth in the rankings. Russia (44.5%), Italy (43%) and Saudi Arabia (41.1%) make up the remainder of the top ten.

The report also found that retailers expanded into a wide range of markets in 2011, with 74% of the countries in the survey seeing at least one new retailer enter the market last year. The overall global footprint of retailers grew 2.1%, similar to the previous year, demonstrating that retailers continue to grow their cross-border businesses in spite of a challenging consumer environment.

North American retailers are by far the most global, with 73% present in all three regions (Europe, Middle East and Africa; Asia Pacific; The Americas), compared with 44% of European retailers and 23% of retailers from Asia Pacific. London is the number one target for American retailers, with 64.7% operating at least one store there, closely followed by Dubai (61.2%) and Kuwait City (49.3%) in the third position.

Further CBRE research into the number of new store openings in the past year reveals that Europe was the most targeted region at city level accounting for 48% of new entries, followed by the Middle East and North Africa with 22%, and Asia with 14%. North America, Pacific, and Latin America attracted 8%, 6% and 1% respectively.