List of the 700 largest retail real estate investors Europe [2025]

List of 3 large retail real estate investors in Europe

Investors in retail real estate in Europe are important for the development and operation of shopping centers, stores and large shopping malls. The largest investors include, for example, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Hammerson, Klépierre and ECE. They buy premium retail locations in Europe in order to ultimately make a lot of money themselves. Stationary retail is important despite the growth of online retail, especially in cities and regions with a lot of traffic. This means that retail properties remain attractive to investors. We have a large selection of retail real estate investors in our database. Below we take a closer look at 3 exciting retail real estate investors in Europe that are part of our extensive list.

1. ECE Group GmbH & Co. KG (Hamburg/Germany)

ECE is a real estate investor wholly owned by the Otto family. The company is specialized in the investment in shopping center and also manages 200 shopping centres across Europe. The centres have a total sales area of over 7,000,000m² and generate over 22 billion euros in retail sales. The Group operates some of the largest shopping centres in Germany. An exemplary example is the “Europa Passage Hamburg” with a sales area of 30,000m² and 120 stores.

Update 2023: ECE is currently expanding the G3 Shopping Resort Gerasdorf in Austria, thereby diversifying not only the tenant mix but also the range of leisure and sports facilities. The shopping center near Vienna will ultimately thus be complemented by the idea of a shopping “resort” with a focus on sports and outdoor. Construction work started at the beginning of the year; the facility is scheduled for completion by mid-2023. The investment costs amount to approximately EUR 12 million. The final realization will be an indoor sports retail area of 5000m² and an outdoor sports facility of 3000m² – with a coordinated retail offering by theme-related retailers such as Snipes or Intersport.

Also in 2023, ECE stays active. Together with Generali, the firm acquired the Pep shopping mall in Munich.

2. METRO PROPERTIES (Düsseldorf/Germany)

METRO PROPERTIES is the real estate arm of the METRO AG. The company owns 436 wholesale properties in Europe, 103 of them in Germany and 130 wholesale properties in Asia. METRO PROPERTIES manages real estate in 17 European countries and also engages in project development. In Asia, the company also relies on mixed-use concepts for the redevelopment of METRO Cash&Carry properties. These concepts include retail, residential, hotels, office and entertainment facilities.

Update 2024: The Metro retail group is still active on the real estate market. Part of the Düsseldorf campus site has been sold to the Swiss asset management company Swiss Life Asset Managers.

3. ImocomPartners (Paris/France)

ImocomPartners is a real estate investor in the retail sector from France. The company manages assets of 610 million euros and owns 30 retail parks in France with a total area of 363,000m². An exemplary investment is “Saint-Orens” in Toulouse with a total area of 53,000m².

Picture source: Heidi Fin

Focus on a diverse asset class

Hardly any asset class is as diverse as retail real estate. Store premises and high-street retail properties in major cities are just as much a part of this as supermarkets and retail parks. Shopping centers and outlet centers can also be found in the purchase profiles of the important investors in this real estate class. The importance of the individual property types differs greatly in some cases between different countries in Europe. In Austria, for example, retail parks play a comparatively important role, in metropolises such as Paris and London, high-street retail properties are of great importance, and factory outlet centers are mainly found in the UK and Italy.

Picture Source: Unsplash (Christian Wiediger), Xianjuan HU via Unsplash (23.08.2023)