Frankfurt’s Zeil most popular shopping area in Germany

Frankfurt’s Zeil is the most popular shopping location in Germany, with a whopping 14,875 visitors an hour between Hauptwache and Konstablerwache, according to JLL.

Munich has also set a new record, with three city shopping locations making it into the top ten for the first time: Kaufingerstr, with 14,320 visitors and hour; Neuhauser Str. with 11,745 and Weinstr. with 10,035, according to JLL.

Other cities to make it into the top ten include Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hannover and Hamburg, with between 13,710 and  8,750 visitors an hour. (See graph.) Flingerstr. in Düsseldorf’s old town jumped to third place this year, from no. 13 last year, ‘due to the lack of accessibility of some other shopping areas where there are building sites disrupting traffic’, according to Helge Scheunemann, head of research Germany at JLL.

‘We notice that more and more visitors are going into the city centre,’ said Dirk Wichner, head of retail leasing at JLL Germany. ‘That shows us that even if sales are falling for traditional retailers, people have other reasons for going into town. For example, instead of buying another pair of trousers, they allocate part of their budget to a new, trendy restaurant.’

As a result, pedestrian zones attract more visitors than ‘Fahrstraßen’, or non-pedestrian zones. JLL analysed 132 pedestrian zones and found that they typically get around 4,500 visitors an hour, compared to 3,300 for ‘Fahrstraßen’.

‘The fear that online retail will kill off city centres is unfounded,’ Wichner said. ‘Instead, we see that towns are becoming more diverse and that shopping and enjoyable experiences are becoming paramount. In many places, there is a tendency for retailers to take smaller spaces, which makes the choices on offer more varied, thereby making many city centres more colourful and attractive.’

Interestingly, food and beverage take-up is increasing more quickly than for traditional apparel retailers, Scheunemann said. ‘There is more of a move towards entertainment and leisure; it’s not just about shopping. This trend is set to continue. Also retail rents have been rising steadily in Germany in recent years but now they are starting to bottom out. I think we may see rents fall in some major German cities by the year end, combined with a rising number of vacant shops mainly in secondary locations.’