Poland’s recent cycle of interest rate cuts has improved financing conditions and reinforced investor appetite for major cities across CEE. It has also intensified the race for the remaining attractive buildings and development plots in core locations. In this competitive environment, institutional investors benefit most when they work with platforms that manage the entire process from A to Z – from identifying and acquiring the right site or standing asset, through design, permitting and construction, all the way to long‑term operation and asset management, ensuring stable returns on capital.
One of the key players in Poland and Czechia is ZEITGEIST Asset Management. The company specializes in heritage and outdated properties located in city centers, repositioning them into high‑standard, well‑performing PRS, student housing and office assets. ZEITGEIST acts as a one‑stop partner, bringing together specialist expertise in investment, law, planning, engineering and operations, and guiding assets through the full “unlocking” process: from structuring and securing permits, through ESG‑driven revitalization and modernization, to fully stabilized, professionally managed buildings.
The firm has been active in the PRS segment since 2014, initially building a broad portfolio of rental apartments and student housing in Czechia before expanding into Germany, Poland, Hungary and Italy. Today, it manages 67 projects across five countries, with a total area of 340,000 square meters and assets under management valued at €1.2 billion. The success of this strategy is evidenced by the completion of five projects in Poland alone over the last two years and the day‑to‑day operation of 23 projects in Czechia, all achieving very high occupancy rates.
“Our clients are looking for long‑term, resilient income rather than short‑term speculation, and the combination of demography, urbanization and modern rental formats fits that profile perfectly,” notes Peter Noack, Founder and CEO of ZEITGEIST Asset Management.
Why investors must move fast
The surge of interest from foreign investors following Poland’s November 2025 rate cuts reflects not only cheaper financing. Poland stands out as one of the European Union’s most stable economies, with projected GDP growth of 3–3.5% annually through 2028, fueled by dynamic urbanization, demographic shifts and rising demand for rentals that now position it ahead of major German cities such as Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
According to the GRI Barometer, Warsaw’s residential sector alone accounts for 52% of Europe’s top investment opportunities, underscoring its appeal. “Complementing this, Czechia offers equally compelling prospects through Prague’s economic resilience, acute shortages in student housing and opportunities for prestigious revitalizations,” adds Noack.
“Poland is now a first‑choice destination for foreign investors in real estate profitability terms, especially in the centers of Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk,” says Tomasz Dąbrowski, Managing Director of ZEITGEIST Asset Management in Poland. “But investors must act quickly: there are fewer and fewer plots and existing buildings that can be brought ‘back to life’ from a legal and permitting standpoint.”
In central Warsaw, ZEITGEIST estimates that only several to a low dozen sites will realistically be available over the next few years, constrained by zoning rules, listed monuments and an already dense, predominantly mixed‑use office‑residential fabric. The picture is even tighter in Krakow and Prague, where opportunities focus mainly on complex revitalizations rather than straightforward developments.
Strategic repositioning of legacy assets
In this context, ZEITGEIST particularly favors investments in older office buildings that require urgent revitalization or have lost their appeal to commercial tenants, achieving excellent results by repositioning them into student halls, PRS apartments, modern mixed‑use developments or boutique hotels that stimulate urban regeneration. This strategy aligns perfectly with significant student housing deficits in countries like Poland and Czechia, where modern PBSA assets – a class that has proven highly resilient to economic fluctuations – can be successfully created from centrally located, university‑proximate office structures.
Flagship projects exemplify this cross‑border approach: in Czechia, the prestigious revitalization of Palac Dunaj in Prague’s UNESCO‑listed center and a unique heritage building complex at Karoliny Svetle; in Poland, the ZEITRAUM Solec student house on Warsaw’s Vistula river, repurposed from a 1960s office block, and ZEITRAUM Racławicka in a well‑connected Krakow district, built entirely to specification with both student and apartment sections. Together, these schemes add to a portfolio of 21 renovated historic tenement houses in Czechia and several office buildings already transformed into living assets, further strengthening ZEITGEIST’s track record in adaptive reuse. These initiatives consistently deliver 98–100% occupancy, confirming the model’s effectiveness in generating high yields from prime adaptive‑reuse locations.
Current highlights include plans for the nearly 100‑year‑old former Telegraph Office at Nowogrodzka 45 in Warsaw to become one of the city’s most significant ESG‑driven premium office buildings, as well as preparations to remodel Krakow’s iconic Main Post Office into a boutique hotel, and the new Taborská project in Czechia, where careful structuring and design will unlock long‑term value from an outdated office asset. Alongside such conversions, ZEITGEIST also invests in both greenfield and brownfield developments across Europe; its most spectacular example to date is the “27 ha Möglichkeiten” urban regeneration in Berlin‑Lichtenberg’s Alt‑Hohenschönhausen district, a large‑scale mixed‑use quarter on a former industrial site.
ZEITGEIST’s presence in the PBSA market is represented by ZEITRAUM Hospitality & Living, operator of student residences and serviced apartments, blending these formats in innovative mixed-use projects. Currently, ZEITRAUM operates seven dormitories across Prague, Warsaw, and Krakow with over 1,200 beds, alongside a network of 300 serviced apartments in Prague, Pilsen, and Krakow, solidifying its leadership in the CEE region.
From complexity to shovel‑ready value
“As a value‑add specialist, we excel at straightening out highly complex real estate projects and bringing them to a truly shovel‑ready stage,” says Peter Noack. The company acquires a plot or building on behalf of an investor and then leads the entire process of changing land use and zoning, redefining the building’s function and preparing it technically and legally for redevelopment. Once the value has been unlocked and the project is construction‑ready, ZEITGEIST can either carry out the development itself or offer the asset to new investors for execution or operations, as demonstrated by the recent sale of six fully renovated residential buildings in prime locations in Prague 1, 2 and 5 to BHM Group.
On a daily basis, as a natural consequence of this specialization, ZEITGEIST frequently takes over the management of projects already held in investors’ portfolios to ensure they operate efficiently and deliver stable income. A recent example is the cooperation with REICO IS Erste Asset Management on the Residence Britská čtvrť rental housing project, as well as the Residence Opatov in Prague 4.
As part of its long‑term rental strategy, ZEITGEIST also runs its own PRS operating platform. Under the HOME by ZEITGEIST brand, the group now manages approximately 1,000 long‑term rental apartments, with a portfolio that continues to expand across Central Europe. It operates 16 residences in Prague with over 500 units, three in Warsaw with more than 200 units, and four in Gdansk offering over 200 modern apartments – all fully renovated or newly built and run to institutional standards.
