While stationary fashion retailers recorded a four percent decline in sales in 2025, visitor frequency in city centers remained relatively stable. The rental market and therefore interest in city center locations was also unbroken in 2025, according to an analysis by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Hystreet.
Passerby frequency and street ranking stable
The pedestrian frequencies analyzed by BNP Paribas Real Estate based on Hystreet data remained stable in the top locations in 2025. There was even a slight upward trend at the end of the year. In November/December the numbers went up by 1.5 percent and in December by five percent. However, there were hardly any shifts in the top third of the pedestrian frequency ranking: Kaufinger and Neuhauser Strasse in Munich, Zeil in Frankfurt, Georgstrasse in Hanover and Schildergasse in Cologne continue to be the five most visited shopping streets among the locations analyzed by BNP Paribas Real Estate and surveyed by Hystreet.com.
Munich, Kaufinger Straße: around 30.0 million people
Munich, Neuhauser Straße: around 28.2 million people
Frankfurt / Main, Zeil: around 22.7 million people
Hanover, Georgstrasse: around 22.7 million people
Cologne, Schildergasse: around 21.6 million people
At the same time, the rental market also developed dynamically. Around 470,000 square meters of retail space were newly rented or newly opened in the city center locations under consideration in 2025. It is the second-best result since 2020. Only in the previous year, 500,000 square meters of space was achieved, which was primarily due to the many new rentals in Galeria properties. However, compared to previous boom years, take-up of space in city locations has declined overall. In 2014, for example, this was over one million square meters and has been falling continuously since then – although the last five years have been relatively stable.
Decathlon, Bestseller and Inditex dominate the new openings
A key driver was also the re-letting of former department store space in 2025, which, at almost 90,000 square meters, accounted for around a fifth of the total volume. At the same time, international trading groups expanded significantly and accounted for around 31 percent of all rentals. One of the most expansive market participants in 2025 was the French sports specialist Decathlon, with 17 new openings and around 36,000 square meters of space taken up. The Danish bestseller group was also strongly present, particularly with its niche brands Only & Sons, Name it and JJXX, which are constantly expanding their product range. The Spanish Inditex Group also continued to expand its branch network and selectively supplemented its location portfolio. Together, the three international trading companies accounted for around 27 percent of the total rental volume last year.
Aside from the fashion segment, branches in the catering and beauty sectors also stand out. The active chains among the system restaurateurs include Burgermeister, Mmaah, L’Osteria and 60 seconds to Napoli, as well as the beauty chain stores Rituals, Skins and the new flagship formats from Douglas. Chinese concepts such as Miniso and Pop Mart are also expanding in Germany.
“The retail market can therefore start the year 2026 with confidence,” explains Christoph Scharf, Managing Director of BNP Paribas Real Estate GmbH and Head of Retail Services. “The already established retailers show that they want to constantly improve their market position in the tough competition for consumers in city center locations through new or larger and modern stores. At the same time, the high and overall stable footfall is calling other international players onto the scene. There are some labels in Europe as well as in the Asian and American retail landscape that have published their motivations for entering the German market in 2026.”
The real estate consulting division of the French banking group BNP Paribas is therefore anticipating diverse rental activity in the coming year.
