At the end of 2018, the total office stock of Katowice, Poland’s fifth largest office market, stood at 519,300 sqm. Last year’s new supply amounted to 50,800 sqm (+218% y/y) delivered across ten office projects, the biggest completions being .KTW (18,200 sqm), Silesia Business Park IV (10,700 sqm) and GPP Business Park IV – Bloch (7,500 sqm). Another 52,000 sqm of office space is expected to be constructed at seven new office schemes in the coming 12 months, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
“Katowice witnessed a historical fall in office vacancy rates in 2018. The downward trend is likely to intensify further due to robust occupier demand for Class A office space in central locations. Established tenants continue to look for expansion opportunities, driven by strong growth powered largely by easy access to talents in this metropolis with a population of over two million. We expect several major transactions to close in 2019, which will confirm the growing importance of Katowice on the office market of Poland,” says Tomasz Dyba, Negotiator, Office Agency, Cushman & Wakefield.
Office take-up hit 38 200 sqm in Katowice in 2018, up by 24% on 2017’s level, but down by 9% on the five-year average for 2013-2017. The largest transactions were signed by Fujitsu Technology Solutions at .KTW (6,300 sqm), Perform Media at Business Park II building A4 (3,100 sqm) and Farmacol (2,100 sqm).
In 2018, Katowice’s office vacancy rate stood at 8.8% (equating to 45,700 sqm), which represented a 2.5 pp decrease compared with 2017. This also pushed net absorption up by 118% on 2017’s level to 57,100 sqm at the end of last year.
Prime office rental rates amounted to €13.75/sqm/month in 2018. Average prime rents are expected to pick up in the coming quarters following the local market entries of such developers as Cavatina, GTC, TriGranit and Vastint.
