ANKARA - Following are the highlights from today's Turkish daily HURRIYET. The Anadolu Agency is not responsible of opinions expressed or the context of the editorials and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The number of shopping malls in Turkey, which we have become familiar with Galleria in Istanbul, soared to 179 over the past 20 years while total leasable area of these malls surged to 3.5 million square meters. Total estimated investments made for all these malls, most of which are in Istanbul, were around 10 billion USD. Considering new malls to be built in the next 5 years, this amount is expected to reach 22 billion USD.
32 percent of all shopping malls are located in Istanbul. 47 new malls are under construction in this metropolis while 30 others will be built in Anatolian cities. When new projects are added to these numbers, Istanbul will house 142 shopping malls and the total number of malls in Turkey will reach 346.
Today, all these figures represent nearly 49.8 square meters of total leasable area per one thousand people. However, it is 734 square meters in Norway, 230 in Britain, 150 in Italy and 143 in Czech Republic. Average leasable area per one thousand people in Europe is almost 200 square meters. Once all new mall projects are completed in Istanbul, Turkish metropolis will outstrip European average in leasable area.
Shopping Malls and Retail Traders' Association Chairman Nusin Oral says 25 billion USD of trade volume will be added to Turkish retail sector when new projects become operatable.