The Metropolitan Warszawa office building reported that 18,000 sqm of new lease agreements and extensions had been signed. Leases include blue-chip tenants such as HP, LCP Properties, Green Holding Group and others including a leading global consulting firm and a world leader in the energy and chemical sectors.

Santander Bank Polska, one of the largest financial groups and the largest bank with private capital in Poland, has become an anchor tenant of The Bridge, which is being built in the business center of Warsaw. The bank has signed a lease agreement with the developer and investor of the building – Ghelamco – for an area of approximately 24,500 sqm (nearly 21,000 sqm of usable area). This is the largest transaction on the Polish office market since 2022.

Companies from PKP Group – PKP S.A. and Xcity Investment – and from Ghelamco Group are resuming cooperation that was interrupted years ago. An annexe to the investment agreement has been signed, which will enable the resumption of preparations for large-scale joint investment. It will include the construction of a new Warszawa Gdańska railway station and a complex of four mixed-use commercial buildings with an estimated total area of about 100,000 sqm.

Karimpol Polska has secured financing of €50 million from Bank Pekao S.A. for the second phase of Skyliner investment at Rondo Daszyńskiego in Warsaw. This marks another collaboration between the investor and the bank, which also financed the construction of the first tower of the complex.

iO Partners, a JLL Preferred Partner, has teamed up with Bright Spaces proptech to provide its clients with a 3D space planning tool. 

Recently, market focus has been on new high-rise office developments which are reshaping Warsaw’s skyline and attracting tenant interest. Analysis of market data reveals, however, that office campuses have enjoyed the strongest occupier demand, says Cushman & Wakefield. Although they make up around 10% of Warsaw’s office stock, they accounted for as much as 16% of total take-up in the city in the first half of 2024. What criteria does an office project have to meet in order to qualify as an office campus and what makes office campuses so popular?

Generali is becoming the anchor tenant in the office complex Vilharia constructed by the Slovak developer Corwin in the heart of Ljubljana. 

Over H1 2024, the office stock in the CEE region grew by 213,000 sqm, with the largest increase recorded in Budapest (78,300 sqm). The majority of the markets still experience subdued construction activity as vacancy rates remain higher than 10%. The development pipeline is largely dependent on pre-lease agreements, with a limited number of speculative starts. The only exception is Prague, where the under-construction volumes nearly doubled as compared to the end of 2023. The overall vacancy rate in the CEE capitals recorded a minimal increase over H1 2024 and stood at 11.6%, against 11.5% in Q4 2023. Muted construction activity will push the overall vacancy rate downwards in the mid-term. A decrease in availability will be more prominent in the prime market segment as occupiers follow „fly to quality” trend. JLL experts, in cooperation with iO Partners, present an analysis of the trends observed in the office market in Poland against the background of countries in the CEE region.

Contract renewals accounted for approximately 50% of office transactions in Bucharest during H1 2024, while the total demand fell to around 160,000 sqm, according to a Colliers report. 

For law firms, the office provides a work environment for legal teams but also serves as something of a showpiece in client and business partner relationships. In an era of changing work models, the evolving role of the office and the growing trend toward space optimisation in some sectors driven by rising costs, Cushman & Wakefield take a closer look at the legal sector’s needs and location decisions.