At the beginning of May, we reported that after years of stagnation, more and more empty shops were finally finding owners. And not only in our existing partner streets, but also in new areas as the number of shops and service providers continues to grow.
We have been monitoring the life cycle of the shops on our partner streets for years. This applies not only to those participating in the Shopping Street Management programme, but to all the shops in the streets or neighbourhoods concerned. We have also seen during the pandemic how partnerships and communities in the streets can be a powerful force for survival, as we have seen that while in Budapest on average 25-30% of shops have closed, in our streets "only" 11% have closed. We were very sorry to see this, but it was a visible result that our activities made sense. Where there is active cooperation and a willingness to exchange experiences and information, the business community will be much less vulnerable.
Several articles have reported on the number of retail outlets closing nationwide, most recently in HVG (24 May 2024). Unfortunately, the trend has been negative for years at national level, and the recent storms (pandemic, overheads, inflation, war) have not helped, and in many places have accelerated the process. Some circumstances are not favourable and it is not certain that this can be stopped everywhere. But we believe that where people are prepared and open-minded, where people care about each other and care about the environment in which they live and work, such a process can either not start or can be reversed. Of course, the well-established urban areas of Budapest cannot be compared with a small rural village, and demand in the city is also diverse, but if we are not indifferent and help and support each other, the outcome will only be positive and the area will become a living, liveable place.
We only have comparative data from the streets that have been part of this cooperation for a longer period of time, but we have also put the new areas on the map and will be able to make comparisons there next year. So, without being exhaustive, below are the figures that confirm everything we have described above. Overall, there is an average improvement of 40% (note: somewhere around 20%, some places around 70% if you look at street level).
|
Number of empty shops |
|
|
2023 |
2024 |
Bartók Béla Boulevard |
19 |
10 |
Falk Art&Antique Street |
8 |
6 |
Fashion Street |
3 |
1 |
Haris Bazár |
13 |
9 |
Király utca |
23 |
19 |
Liszt Ferenc tér |
11 |
6 |
Mikszáth tér, Krúdy Gy. u. |
3 |
2 |
Pozsonyi Piknik |
10 |
3 |
Ráday Soho |
32 |
26 |