Demand for Spanish shopping malls starts picking up

[MADRID] After a six-year slump, demand for Spanish shopping malls is showing signs of picking up as buyers bet that more and more consumers will return.

Purchases of large-scale retail complexes may reach as much as 1.5 billion euros (S$2.6 billion) this year as investors like Orion Capital Managers LP and Intu Properties plc anticipate a recovery in consumer lending, said Gema de la Fuente, an analyst at real estate agent Savills in Madrid. That's at least 10 times more than in 2012.

Growth in Europe's fifth-largest economy is gaining momentum, kindling consumer demand by creating jobs and allowing the government to ease the toughest austerity measures in more than three decades.