Sell retail in Bremen.

Bremen's retail leasing market is a tale of two cities compressed into one compact pedestrian core. The prime axis of Sögestrasse and Obernstrasse, anchored by the city's Hanseatic old town and the UNESCO-listed Marktplatz ensemble, still commands the highest footfall and the most resilient rents, with the best small units on Sögestrasse achieving the mid-seventies per square metre per month in early 2026. Obernstrasse functions as the high-throughput mass-market spine, while Hutfilterstrasse and the covered Lloyd-Passage operate as secondary pitches whose fortunes depend heavily on footfall and repositioning. Beyond this core, vacancy rises quickly and rents fall away, a pattern common to mid-sized German cities adjusting to structural retail change. The dominant force reshaping the market is the substitution of pure comparison-goods retail by food, service and experiential uses. Department-store downsizing has released large central units, and landlords are increasingly offering shorter leases and turnover-linked rents to secure tenants. The reduction of dine-in VAT to seven percent from January 2026 provides a modest tailwind for gastronomy operators backfilling former retail space, reinforcing the shift toward mixed, experience-led pitches. Competition for the city centre comes from two directions. Out-of-town and edge destinations such as the Waterfront outlet and leisure centre in Gröpelingen, the Weserpark and the nearby Dodenhof draw away volume and value retail, while e-commerce continues to erode comparison-goods demand everywhere. Against this, the residential and office growth of Überseestadt is creating fresh convenience and food-anchored requirements, opening a new, smaller but growing leasing niche outside the traditional core. The twelve-month outlook points to stabilisation on the best pitches and continued pressure on secondary ones. The principal risks are persistent e-commerce competition, department-store insolvency leaving large vacant anchors, and consumer caution amid cost-of-living pressure. The clearest opportunities lie in letting prime Sögestrasse and Obernstrasse units to resilient multiples and food operators, repurposing vacant department-store space into mixed-use formats, and capturing the experiential and gastronomy demand that the VAT cut and tourism support. A successful leasing strategy in Bremen concentrates on the prime core and treats secondary pitches as repositioning rather than letting plays.

vacancy: 8 % high-street vacancy (indicative); avg secondary rent: 35 EUR/sqm/month (secondary pitches); prime rent high street: 75 EUR/sqm/month (prime Sögestrasse/Obernstrasse, ~100 sqm unit).