According to Colliers International, the total amount of professional malls in Yekaterinburg came to 163 square meters per 1,000 people in the last three months of 2006. According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the figure only reached the point of 136 square meters per 1,000 people, says PR Director of Technosila retail chain Nadezhda Senyuk.

Ms Senyuk reports that despite dynamic construction rate and new buildings commissioned on regular basis, the supply of available mall areas is very limited in any Russian region. Retail operators must fight for places, so the prices don’t go down and tend to increase in some provinces; this is not likely to change much within the next two or three years, experts say.

As for Ural Federal District, the average annual rent amounts to $260 to $300 per 1 square meter for 2,000 to 4,000-square-meter areas and to $200 to $220 for 4,000-6,000-square-meter buildings.