Urban and economic development in most European cities has in the last decades led to a decay of their district centres in terms of local economies, social cohesion and demographic balance. Despite a common long-term trend towards the regeneration of the inner cities versus urban sprawl already since the early 1990s, this has hardly led to the solution of those problems that were caused in the course of several decades. In particular, demand-oriented diversification of the local retail and service sectors is lacking. In order to strengthen this process on traditional locations in the small cities and district centres off the prospering city centres, large effort is required. On the one hand, both in the metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities consumers are kept in city centres through an increasing number of shopping centres leading to lower demand of individual mobility. On the other hand, for those inhabitants living off these inner city shopping centres in the district centres suffering from this development, the question remains how to access adequate supply in their vicinity and thus how attractive their places of living still are.