In the first half of the year, there was a sharp decline in the volume of real estate investments in Poland. Despite the market recovery at the end of summer, the total volume in Q1-Q3 2023 amounted to only €1.7 billion. After the first half of the year with few portfolio transactions, in the third quarter, there were already four - in the warehouse and retail sectors, but none of them exceeded the value of €100 million. Interestingly, despite the turmoil, the Polish investment market welcomed 3 new players this year. Avison Young Poland summarizes the property investment market in Poland in Q3 2023

Octava Property Trust has sold a development plot for an SBU warehouse project to an Austrian investor. According to real estate advisory firm Savills, engaged in the search for investors in partnership with Avison Young, Warsaw is the fastest-growing warehouse market in Poland. 

Octava has sold the Obrzeżna Center office building in Warsaw to a Polish investor. The price has not been disclosed. Avison Young and Savills jointly represented the seller.

Duda Development has sold a Silesian retail park portfolio to a private investor. Avison Young represented the purchaser. The price has not been disclosed.

Just ahead of the Expo Real investment fair in Munich, experts of Avison Young presented an overview of the current situation in the Polish commercial real estate market. 

In H1 2023, the total transaction volume in the CEE region decreased by 59% year-on-year. The current results in the property investment market may not appear very optimistic at the moment, but this is only a temporary situation, Avison Young reports.

The current results of the Polish investment market may not appear very optimistic at the moment, but this is only a temporary situation. The Polish real estate market has a solid foundation, and investors have proven to be highly adaptable, as evidenced by the results achieved in previous challenging years, reveals Avison Young's investment market summary for H1 2023, prepared by Research and Data Manager Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczyńska.

Due to the increase in prices of electricity, utilities, services and minimum wage, as well as local taxes and fees, experts from Avison Young Poland are experiencing significant increases in operating costs in office buildings this year. In Warsaw, depending on the class of the property and the components of the operating costs, they have observed an increase ranging from 15% to as much as 30-40%. Tenants are now paying particular attention to the components of the settlement that may vary depending on the building, as well as technological solutions that allow for reducing utility consumption.

Older buildings are making way for new ones, and the trend of redeveloping plots in the centres of large cities in Poland is intensifying. Furthermore, the plans include not only new development projects that arise after demolitions but also transforming existing office buildings into residential projects, including those in PRS (Private Rented Sector) formula, says Avison Young Polska. 

Avison Young presented the results of the investment market in Poland for the first 5 months of 2023. The volume of closed transactions announced to the public from the beginning of this year to the end of May amounted to only around €800 million, while in 2021 and 2022 in the same period, its value amounted to over twice as much. There were no large transactions, which in the first quarter of 2022 accounted for 75% of the total volume. Many buyers are trying to take advantage of the market situation and are bidding well below property valuations, hoping to get a good deal, but owners are taking their time to sell. Avison Young experts - Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczyńska (Research and Data Manager) and Marcin Purgal (Senior Director, Investment) - expect that in the second half of this year, the commercial real estate market in Poland will be dominated by opportunistic and value-add assets in every sector.