Ewa Andrzejewska, Chief Operating Officer at Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK), has talked to Property Forum about the improving conditions in the office market in Poland, the never-ending turmoil over REITs and incoming legislative changes.
Let's start with offices - almost 11% vacancy in the capital's office market and almost 18% in regions with very modest new supply. How deep is the Polish office sector sinking?
I would rather describe the market situation as a thaw in the market, which can be felt not only in the air in March. The new year, or rather the end of the past year, brought a revival in the office market. The last quarter was traditionally the best in terms of leased space, but also in terms of property acquisitions. Of the more than €5 billion spent on real estate in Poland last year, offices attracted €1.63 billion in 43 transactions. This is 382 per cent more than in 2023, according to data from consultancy CBRE. Among regional cities, the highest vacancy rate, at 23 per cent, remains in Katowice. High rates were also registered in Łódź and Wrocław, where they stood at 22.7 per cent and 19.3 per cent, respectively, at the end of December 2024. Absorption of this vacancy, depending on the location, may take the next 2-5 years, assuming a gradual return to offices, JLL experts estimate. At the same time, the coming year will be modest in terms of new supply in the regions (a maximum of 70,000 sqm of new offices will arrive). However, this, combined with a fairly steady tenant demand in the region of 700 thousand sqm, will allow empty offices to fill up. I remain optimistic, especially looking at the growing trend of people returning to offices with the hybrid working model now firmly entrenched. A modern but ergonomic office that generates savings is one of the incentives. Not to mention the famous ‘fruit Thursdays’.
The clock on your website shows that more than 442 weeks (!!!) have passed since the start of work on the law regulating the formation of Polish REITs, and there is still no end in sight. Will we live to see the happy end of this road in 2025?
Yes, the clock is still ticking... It seemed that the past year would be a watershed year as far as REIT regulation in Poland was concerned. After a prolonged absence from the political debate, the topic of REIT regulation first returned in the 2023 election campaign and formally found its way onto the government's agenda in April 2024 when the Ministry of Development and Technology presented the preliminary assumptions of the regulations on Polish REITs. The assumptions were then forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, which was to analyse the tax aspects of the potential regulations and their consistency with other solutions. So far, we have not learned the official position of the Ministry of Finance on the matter. Nevertheless, we have noted with hope the positive signals coming from the Ministry of Finance in recent weeks, i.e. the publication of the Ministry of Finance's strategy document for 2025-2028, which includes an action in the form of the introduction of new financial instruments (ETFs, REITs and others), as well as statements by representatives of the Ministry indicating that the conceptual work on the regulation of REITs has been completed. We, therefore, hope that soon, the draft law on REITs will be published and subjected to extensive consultation with stakeholders, and we will be able to turn off the clock on the website.
