The recently published Highstreet Report 2026, a joint study by Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate and bulwiengesa, sheds light on the current situation of German city centres. The study, titled 'Making connections, Highstreet', analyses for the seventh time the number and type of business establishments in the prime locations of 100 German city centres and 114 inner-city shopping centres. For the first time, vacancy rates were also systematically recorded. The results show that the functioning of German city centres has changed compared to the beginning of the decade, but their attractiveness remains.
Iris Schöberl, Managing Director Germany at Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate in Munich, notes that the appearance of German city centres has changed significantly since the first edition of the Highstreet Report. She explains that vacated spaces have often been successfully filled with new concepts, which has not caused high streets to shrink, but rather to become more diverse and dynamic. As key success factors for this transformation, she identifies not only size, economic power and key figures such as purchasing power or centrality, but also the importance of market-appropriate rents, flexible space design and municipal commitment to the future viability of city centres.
Development of Stock and Shifts in Use
The total number of shops in the cities examined recorded a slight increase of 40 to 15,234 stores over the past twelve months, which corresponds to a growth of 0.3 per cent. Compared to 2020, however, this represents a decrease of 1,120 shops or 6.8 per cent. Inner-city shopping centres significantly reduced their retail share; here, around 1,100 stores have closed since 2020, which corresponds to a decrease of 14.8 per cent. These centres are increasingly focusing on mixed-use concepts that integrate offices, educational facilities, residential, hotels and medical care. The traditional shopping street, however, saw an increase for the second consecutive year, with a gain of 31 shops to a total of 8,903 in 2026. This is only 20 shops fewer than in 2020.
The change continues to affect the fashion segment, which, despite another decline of 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous year and 24.4 per cent or 1,398 shops since 2020, remains the largest product group at 28.5 per cent. Gastronomy, however, continues to expand, with a growth of 133 establishments (+5.5 per cent) compared to 2025 and an increase of 433 stores or 20.6 per cent since 2020. Cafes and restaurants now reach third place among product groups with a share of 16.6 per cent, just behind other hard goods with 18.2 per cent. Retail-related services such as travel agencies and hairdressers (+1.2 percentage points), as well as food and beverages (+0.5 percentage points), have also seen increases since 2020. The share of chain stores is declining; international chains now account for only 37.3 per cent of shops (2020: 42.4 per cent), while national chains reduced their share from 28.2 per cent (2020) to 27 per cent (2026).
Regional and new concepts are filling the emerging gaps and contributing to diversification as well as creating new reasons to visit city centres. Prominent new openings in 2026 include the fashion brand ONLY & SONS with 16 additional stores, followed by Søstrene Grene with 12 stores and Starbucks with 9 new locations. The strongest reductions were recorded by providers such as Telekom (-27 branches) and DEPOT (-27 branches). The most branches along the high street in 2026 were operated by the drugstore dm (147), H&M (118) and Bijou Brigitte (118). Gastronomy was cited by 60 per cent of respondents as a reason for visiting the city centre, an increase of 14 percentage points since 2020.
Vacancy Rates and Success Factors for Attractive City Centres
For the first time, vacancy rates were recorded in the Highstreet Report 2026. On average, 9.1 per cent of available units were vacant. Medium-sized cities with high attractiveness show lower vacancy rates at 7.8 per cent than top scorers (10.1 per cent) and low scorers (11.2 per cent). The data shows significant regional differences: while Lippstadt (0 per cent), Ulm (2 per cent) and Heilbronn (2.7 per cent) record hardly any vacancies, in Ingolstadt (21.6 per cent), Gera (25 per cent) and Solingen (29 per cent) over 20 per cent of retail spaces are unused. Iris Schöberl emphasises that vacancy does not follow a simple pattern. She states that cities with compact city centres, good transport links, high quality of stay and active location management have advantages.
Schöberl concludes that the high street segment has not only significantly changed in terms of occupancy and social function in recent years. She explains that landlords, tenants and investors today take a fundamentally different perspective on this segment. In addition to the urban location, flexibility and quality of the space, as well as the tenant's specific business model, have become much more important. She concludes that the market today is no longer primarily driven by valuation and financing, but by ongoing business.
