Shopping streets are ‘resilient to economic downturn,’ Magheru blvd ranks 26th in list

In Romania, rents on Magheru Boulevard went up 26 percent, from EUR 115 per sqm per month in 2007, to EUR 145 this year. Some owners are even asking EUR 190. The increase covers the first two quarters of the year, as the market saw stagnations in the third. Magheru Boulevard ranks 26th on the list of most expensive high street locations, up from 29th place last year.
New York's Fifth Avenue is once again the world's most expensive shopping street where retailers can now expect to pay rents of EUR 12,612 per sqm of sales space per annum, an increase of 23 percent on 2007. The most expensive streets in Hong Kong, Paris, Milan and Dublin make up the remainder of the top five but London and Tokyo have dropped down to sixth and seventh respectively. Dublin has been the best performer in the top 10 with the city's Grafton Street rising two places in the ranking to enter the world's top five most expensive streets for the first time.
High-end international retailers are continuing to expand into new overseas markets and generally taking a longer term view of the economic cycle.