Wide-ranging letting activity in 2025: Expansion activities are picking up, consolidation processes are providing additional demand impetus

One of the most expansive players inside and outside department store properties was primarily the sports specialist Decathlon with 17 registered openings and around 36,000 m² of take-up in 2025. The Danish bestseller group is also worth mentioning, whose even younger niche brands Only & Sons, Name it and JJXX have made a special appearance, underlining that the big players are increasingly diversifying their product range. In this context, the brands of the Spanish Inditex Group (including Bershka, Stradivarius and Pull&Bear) should also be mentioned, which decisively expanded their portfolio of locations in the previous year and further supplemented them with additional stores in 2025. Together, the three international retail groups account for around 27% of the letting volume, which illustrates their great importance. Apart from the fashion segment, retailers in the gastronomy and beauty sector also stand out again and again. Among the active chains of system caterers are Burgermeister, Mmaah, L'Osteria and 60 seconds to Napoli as well as for the beauty chain stores Rituals, Skins and the new flagship formats of Douglas. However, the fact that the range of new retail groups on the German market is not limited to European companies is increasingly demonstrated by Chinese concepts such as Miniso or Pop Mart. Overall, international retailers account for a high 31% of all lettings/openings.

The overall good market sentiment in 2025 was particularly beneficial for the A-locations, which participate in the letting activity with around 133,000 m² (28% share). Not least due to the numerous retail hotspots and the very extensive shopping centre landscape, Berlin continues to be at the top of the city ranking (around 46,000 m²). This is followed in second place by the inner-city retail market of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg (around 21,000 m²; excluding the Westfield Shopping Center in Überseequartier), well ahead of the Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne locations, which are almost on a par with between 15,000 and 17,000 m² each. The Stuttgart market in particular benefited from an accumulation of major contracts in Königstraße (including C&A, Thalia, Decathlon and Lidl). In Frankfurt (around 12,000 m²) and Düsseldorf (around 9,000 m²), take-up was somewhat lower, but the good number of over 20 and almost 30 deals respectively also speaks for dynamic market activity here. The two most important Saxon shopping metropolises Leipzig (including Stradivarius, Deiters, Westwing, Mango, Action, Name it, Only & Sons, Mmaah, Burgermeister) and Dresden (Papenbreer, 60 seconds to Napoli, L'Osteria, Adidas, Doc Martens, Mmaah) also achieved good results within the B locations, accounting for around 11,000 m² and around 8,000 m² respectively. Several of the most expansive brands have opted for branches in the top markets in eastern Germany.

In contrast, there were once again hardly any shifts in the upper third of the pedestrian frequency ranking: Kaufinger (around 30.0 million people) and Neuhauser Straße in Munich (around 28.2 million people), Zeil in Frankfurt (around 22.7 million people), Georgstraße in Hanover (also around 22.7 million people) and Schildergasse in Cologne (around 21.6 million people) continue to be the most visited shopping streets among the shopping streets analysed by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Hystreet.com elevated sites. Within the A-cities, Königstraße in Stuttgart is also above the 20 million visitor mark (around 20.7 million; 6th place nationwide), in Tauentzienstraße in Berlin there are around 17.3 million people (8th place), Schadowstraße in Düsseldorf visited around 15.5 million passers-by (11th place), and in Spitalerstraße in Hamburg there were around 14.5 million potential consumers (13th place). Grimmaische Straße in Leipzig (around 15 million people), which ranks 12th ahead of Spitalerstraße in Hamburg, can also keep up with these data, Prager Straße in Dresden counted around 11.9 million people and lands in 21st place in the upper half of the table.

"The retail market can thus start 2026 with confidence: The already established retailers show that they want to steadily improve their market position in a fierce competition for consumers in inner-city locations through new or larger and modern stores. At the same time, the high and generally stable footfall is attracting the attention of other international players. In Europe as well as in the Asian and American retail landscapes, there are some labels that have published their motivations for entering the German market in 2026," explains Christoph Scharf. Accordingly, a varied letting activity can be expected again for the coming year. However, whether a balance in the area of the 500,000 m² mark can be achieved again at the end of 2026 will depend not least on the supply situation, which does not always offer as much creative freedom as in 2025, even in Galeria properties.

Detailed information on the 9 top retail markets in Berlin, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart is provided in the new Retail City Report by BNP Paribas Real Estate, which you can find under this link: