A total of 190,000 square metres in new shopping space was completed in the first six months of this year, but 185,000 square metres of it is still unoccupied, according to retail property information group Locatus.

‘Almost everything which has been built has been built to remain empty. This is the first time we have seen this,’ Locatus director Gertjan Slob told news agency ANP on Wednesday.
The Netherlands has nearly 30 million square metres of retail space, of which 1.9 million square metres is empty – giving a vacancy rate of 6.5%.
Yesterday it emerged the amount of empty office accommodation in the Netherlands now accounts for 14.4% of the total supply.