Warsaw’s office stock topped 5 million sqm in 2016. High growth dynamics and changing market conditions have led to inter- and intrazone tenant migration in the past two years. Building age is still central to the choice of a suitable location. Cushman & Wakefield presented its findings in a report on the future of the Warsaw office market.

Skanska has attained an occupancy permit for the third building of Silesia Business Park in Katowice. The office complex is one of the biggest office parks in Katowice and already has lease agreements signed for over 23,000 sqm of space.

On 1 December 2016, international real estate developer HB Reavis and Savills Investment Management on behalf of a Global Pension Fund client, concluded the sale agreement of two of buildings within Gdanski Business Centre in Warsaw. In one of the largest transactions of the year in Poland and also in the CEE region amounting to €186 million, Savills Investment Management has acquired buildings A and B of the Gdanski Business Center, totalling 48,000 sqm.

Skanska Property Poland has signed an agreement on the rights of perpetual usufruct, a right granting long-term use of real estate, on the land plot near Rondo ONZ in the business centre of Warsaw. Currently, the Ilmet office building is located on this plot. In addition, the company has bought the Warsaw One project, which was designed by the previous owner. In the transaction process the seller was advised by Knight Frank.

Mentor Graphics Corporation, a manufacturer of design software and electronic equipment, has signed a lease agreement on 4 417 sqm in building B of Silesia Star in Katowice. The client was represented by Cushman & Wakefield in lease negotiations and the coordination and supervision of fit-out works in the new office.

During the third quarter, three new office buildings were completed with a total area of 39,570 sqm – reports JLL in their latest Budapest Office Market Pulse. The increasing development activity has had an effect on the vacancy rate as well: the Budapest office market’s vacancy rate made a slight increase to 10.9% as a result of the vacant space in the newly completed buildings and in the buildings from where the tenants moved out.

Panalpina Polska, an air and sea freight company, leased a 630 sqm office in the West Station I building. A team of BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts advised the tenant during the negotiation process with HB Reavis. Panalpina Polska will be moving in the first quarter of 2017 and taking up space on the 12th floor of the building.

Celanese Hungary Ltd. is setting up its new 4,200 sqm headquarters in Promenade Gardens as of April 2018. The decision was made prior to the foundation stone being laid for the new office building on inner Váci út. The regional financial and logistics business service center of the international company found its new home on the 1st and 2nd floors of the modern, 4-tower building (in cores B, C and D).

The foundation stone for the new Magyar Telekom Headquarters has been laid in Budapest on 15 November. The 58,000 sqm office building is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015 and will be leased by Magyar Telekom for at least 15 years. Upon completion it will become the largest single-block office building in Hungary.

Construction of the first of two West Station office buildings, located in the immediate vicinity of the new Warszawa Zachodnia railway station, has completed. The complex, seen from both Jerozolimskie Ave. and all passing trains, will soon welcome its first occupiers. Its developer, international real estate company HB Reavis, signed a loan contract to refinance the project.