5bn euro retail investments in Romania's 25 largest cities

Romania's 25 largest cities, the only ones with a population of above 100,000 inhabitants, have in the past ten years attracted investments of almost five billion euros in shopping centres, hypermarkets and cash&carry-type stores, according to a ZF survey, after in early 2000 only one (Bucureşti Mall) and just five Metro stores (two in Bucharest and one in Timişoara, Braşov and Constanţa) were operational in Romania.

In 2001, Carrefour and Selgros entered the market, but the boom of investments in consumption spaces came as late as around 2005, when retailers and developers seized major cities.
The 25 biggest cities under analysis have a total population of 6.5 million inhabitants, according to the National Statistics Institute data, accounting for almost one third of the country's population. In these cities, real estate developers and shopping networks have earmarked 700 euros per inhabitant on average, but the money was not distributed uniformly.
The past ten years' biggest investments have been operated in Bucharest, namely 1.6bn euros against an official population of 1.93 million inhabitants, with Cluj, Timişoara, Constanţa, Suceava and Iaşi coming next.