Eastern Poland continues to attract increasing interest from both Polish and overseas investors. Its cities, including Lublin, Białystok and Suwałki, are gaining favour with logistics and manufacturing firms planning to expand, according to Kamil Żach, Land Specialist, Industrial and Logistics Agency at Cushman & Wakefield.
The expanding road network in this part of the country supports this region’s growth. The completion of the new sections of expressways, including Via Carpatia, has a positive influence on the communication with countries located North and South of Poland and considerably shortens the journey times between cities - both on the scale of the region and the country.
Availability of low-priced lands is another important factor. Cities that have established themselves as core logistics locations are increasingly experiencing both labour shortages and a paucity of conveniently-located development lands with land prices weighing heavily on project profitability levels. Therefore, further road improvements will increase the attractiveness of many development sites in eastern Poland as an investment destination. It can be assumed that some of the investment lands in the centres treated by investors as priorities will be largely developed until the opening time of Via Carpatia route next to which the areas might be considered an interesting investment opportunity in the future.
Eastern Poland is also likely to benefit from recent amendments to legislation on special economic zones. The concept of “extending economic zones to the whole of Poland” may open up growth opportunities for a number of areas in the eastern part of the country. Land availability and prices, the local labour market and convenient business locations are likely to encourage companies to begin a business activity in areas where such activity was recently thought to be unprofitable.
Actual demand for lands in Eastern Poland represents a small percentage of the entire Polish warehouse market. Taking into account the above-mentioned aspects, this trend will change quickly.
