The pandemic has translated into a more cautious approach on the market along with lower office demand. Although office development in Poland is at its lowest level for eight years, regional markets are holding their ground with 800,000 sqm under construction. Advisory company JLL summarises Q1 2021 on the office market in Poland.

New office projects with a combined surface of 220,000 sqm will be delivered in Bucharest this year, up compared with the stock of 155,000 sqm that was finished during 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

More and more tenants are moving into the recently completed office building in the project of My Place. The second and last office building belonging to the multifunctional project developed by Echo Investment in Warsaw's Dolny Mokotów has become a new location for companies from different industries such as technology, finance, beauty and creative sector i.e. marketing and advertising. KAN, ArsThanea, Synektik, Networks! or Bozza have joined Echo's list of tenants.

One of the world’s largest IT companies has picked New Apollo, currently under construction by HB Reavis in Bratislava’s New Nivy zone, as the new home for its Slovak operations. The new tenant will occupy almost 30,000 sqm of the building’s 48,000 sqm.

Colliers has become the exclusive advisor responsible for the commercialisation of the Fregata office complex, which is being built at Bronowicka Street in Szczecin. The completion of the first building is planned for 2023. 

HB Reavis has delivered the campus-style buildings of Forest, a project focused on incorporating natural elements and greenery into the urban scape of Poland's capital. Along with it, the company topped out the 120-metre-tall Forest tower.  

S Immo is ramping up its development activities in CEE with a new office project in Budapest. An ensemble consisting of three office buildings offering roughly 29,000 sqm of usable space will be built on Váci Road, one of the most important office locations in the Hungarian capital. The most significant structure is an 11-storey building located directly on Váci Road. The company plans to obtain sustainability certification according to BREEAM and WELL.

Over the year, since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Poland, the Warsaw office market has seen a marked decrease in occupier demand and office stock under construction amid rising vacancy rates. Although the past 12 months have been challenging for the office sector, companies are no less keen to have an office of their own, says real estate advisory firm Savills.

At the end of Q1 2021, the total modern office stock in Poland's eight major regional markets amounted to 5,826,400 sqm. The largest office markets in Poland (following Warsaw) were Kraków (1,574,000 sqm), Wrocław (1,226,300 sqm) and the Tri-City (913,600 sqm). The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures on the office market in eight major regional markets (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q1 2021.

In 2020, applications for building permits in Warsaw were pouring in, says Walter Herz. According to the Permits for the Construction of Office Buildings Warsaw 2016-2020 report, last year brought over a 40% increase in the number of filed applications for building permits for facilities offering office space in Warsaw, compared to the previous year.