Poland continues to attract investors from across Europe, but the profile of that capital is changing. As regional players become more active and some Western institutions take a more cautious approach, new opportunities are emerging across a range of sectors. Speakers of the first panel at Future of Real Estate 2026, a conference organised in Warsaw, agreed that the country’s strong economic fundamentals remain intact, but unlocking the next wave of growth will require greater market liquidity, larger investment platforms and a deeper pool of domestic and regional capital.
Kajetan Michalski, Senior Leasing & Asset Manager at White Star Real Estate, framed Poland as a mature, no-longer-“emerging” market with strong macroeconomic fundamentals and a long track record of successful real estate projects, particularly in Warsaw offices. He stressed that Poland still offers a pricing advantage versus Western Europe, but with risk characteristics more aligned to those markets, especially as EU funds and the national recovery plan continue to support growth. Looking ahead, he expects more platform-based, portfolio transactions, with investors increasingly demanding integrated property, asset and facility management under one roof. He also highlighted the residential segment – especially institutional student and senior housing – as a powerful additional growth driver attracting foreign capital.
Hannes Wimmer positioned Erste Group as a long-term believer in Poland, explaining that the Santander Polska acquisition finally gave the bank the on-the-ground presence to match its long-held CEE strategy. He underlined that Poland’s size, liquidity and diversified asset base made it a missing piece in Erste’s ambition to be a leading financier in Eastern EU markets, across both commercial and now residential segments. Wimmer described the bank as largely asset-class agnostic, financing offices, retail, logistics, hotels and local residential through specialised channels. For the coming years, he sees increased transaction activity and the long-discussed introduction of REIT legislation as crucial steps to attract more capital and cement Poland’s regional leadership.
Ieva Vitaityte explained that Capitalica’s interest in Poland was driven primarily by yield convergence between Warsaw and the Baltic capitals after the 2022 interest rate hikes. Historically, higher prime office yields in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn kept Baltic investors at home, but rapid repricing in Poland eliminated that gap and, at times, even inverted it in favour of Warsaw. She argued that prime CBD offices anchored by international corporates and FDI-driven tenants still offer some of the most resilient cash flows in the region, making them Capitalica’s main target. Vitaityte also emphasised how Baltic, Czech, Hungarian and Polish capital are increasingly replacing Western core funds as the dominant bidders, and predicted more sizeable deals backed by regional investors over the next cycle.
Sayed Alaali described Slate Asset Management’s strategy as focused on “essential real estate” – infrastructure-like assets that underpin the delivery of necessity goods and services, particularly food. In Poland, this has translated into a large retail park portfolio anchored by strong grocery and daily-needs tenants, supported by evidence of rent growth, low vacancies and attractive entry pricing. Alaali said Slate had to look past geopolitical headlines by spending time on the ground, touring assets and building relationships, ultimately concluding that Poland’s fundamentals and scale compared very favourably on a risk-adjusted basis to many Western European markets. He expects more global capital to follow a similar path, provided they can secure sufficient scale and comfort on liquidity.
Josef Malíř presented SCF as a fast-moving real estate private equity investor willing to own and operate a wide range of asset classes, with a particular current focus on retail. He recounted how SCF entered Poland by rapidly touring multiple cities, assessing shopping centres first-hand and moving from site visit to ownership within months, illustrating their entrepreneurial approach. Malíř pointed out that while there is ample liquidity for smaller assets, very large retail and retail-park portfolios still face a limited buyer universe, which he views as a source of opportunity for agile regional capital. Looking ahead, he expects a growing wave of industrial assets to come to market, driven in part by the selling needs of UK-based and other institutional owners, and anticipates more Czech and Hungarian money targeting Polish deals than large Western institutional capital in the near term
