JLL France: Investors Return to the Retail Sector

Commercial real estate in Paris is untouched by the crisis. This is the message delivered by Jessica Jaoui (Head of Retail Capital Markets) and Benjamin Boccara (Head of Retail Leasing Paris) on the BiTV set. Driven by the post-Covid "revenge buying" effect and the acceleration from the Olympic Games, the inner-Paris market shows robust health, attracting brands seeking premium locations in the world's tourism capital.

The great return of investors

After a period of uncertainty linked to the rise of e-commerce, investors are making a strong comeback. "We didn't know how far the growth of e-commerce would go. Today, we have visibility: we know that physical stores will co-exist with e-commerce," analyzes Jessica Jaoui.

This complementarity, coupled with the proven resilience of innovative concepts, has restored confidence for capital, which is now repositioning itself in the French and European markets.

"Retrade": Data to secure investments

To support this recovery, JLL innovates with the launch of Retrade, a proprietary dynamic mapping tool. Succeeding the NXT tool, Retrade aggregates all the data from the capital's main thoroughfares:

• Vacancy rates (currently at a very low level of 5.5% on Prime locations).
• Rental values and their evolution.
• Pedestrian footfall and performance by sector.

Decoding commercial "clusters"

Beyond the numbers, the tool allows the visualization of neighborhood "clustering" trends. Benjamin Boccara cites the striking example of the Champs-Élysées, where the tool reveals clear disparities between the even and odd-numbered sidewalks, or a concentration of luxury brands towards the Arc de Triomphe.

"It allows us to substantiate an intuition," he explains. By materializing this data, JLL offers landlords and retailers valuable decision-making support to secure investments in a market where rental values remain high.