The retail real estate market in Ukraine appears to be following the Polish pattern of development, but the entire process is about six years behind, and the current economic crisis is widening the gap, said Pierre Couderq, Head of the commercial real estate company Couderq Partners, which has been present in the Ukrainian market since 1996. When it comes to the total size fo the markets, there are four cities in Poland with population over 700,000 and eight in Ukraine, which suggests that the potential urban market in Ukraine is twice as big as Poland’s. Pierre Couderq and Radosław Gadomski, from King Cross, who both spoke at the meeting, said that that the Ukrainian market offers big opportunities for developers as it matures. It is slowly adopting Western standards thanks to international retail operators who have begun entering the market despite earlier fears about organized crime. According to Pierre Couderq, although the current economic crisis poses some question marks about when big projects by world renowned players will commence, it is certain that as soon as the global crisis subsides, a crowd of international developers will start competing with the local ones again.

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