Utmost cautiousness, falling transaction volumes and waiting for the office sector to finally catch its breath and the large retail schemes to redefine their strategies contrast with considerable investor interest in specific retail formats, the dynamic growth of the logistics sector, and strong entry of European players onto the domestic residential rental market. This is what—according to the latest report by BNP Paribas Real Estate “At A Glance: Investment Market in Poland in Q2 2021”, Poland’s commercial property investment market looked like in the second quarter of the year.

Awaiting the reopening of shops and service outlets to go shopping at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, positive footfall results achieved by most shopping centres in May, the opening of a second Primark store with a third one in the pipeline, plus a strong debut of a new Polish off-price concept – these are some of the key news and developments to have taken place in the retail sector in Q2 2021, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Robertson Hungary, a provider of real estate services in the field of property acquisition, vendition, leasing, valuation in the sectors of office, retail, hotel, industrial and logistics, announced that it is acquiring BNP Paribas Real Estate Hungary, a company specializing in property, project and financial management services in the Hungarian real estate market, to strengthen its position and broaden its business activities. The purchase of BNP Paribas Real Estate Hungary, based in Budapest, further increases Robertson Hungary’s share in the real estate market.

City Park Hostivař in Prague 10 has been acquired by a Western European investment company, represented by BNP Paribas Real Estate. The name of the buyer and the purchase price has not been disclosed.

Fifth Wall, the largest venture capital firm focused on real estate technology, has partnered with BNP Paribas Real Estate to launch its business in Europe with the Fifth Wall Real Estate Technology European Fund, its first European proptech fund. The California-based company founded in 2016 has over $1.2 billion under management, raised from industry stakeholders via several funds.

Benson Elliot, a UK-based private equity real estate fund manager, acting on behalf of its pan-European fund, Benson Elliot Real Estate Partners V L.P. has acquired Marynarska Business Park (MBP), an office complex in Warsaw, from a fund managed by Heitman Real Estate. The price paid was c. €65 million.

Diamante Plaza, an office building located in Kraków, was sold to Catalyst Capital. Experts from Capital Markets at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland provided commercial advisory to the buyer and supported him in finalising the purchase.  

BNP Paribas Real Estate has appointed Karel Bor as the new Managing Director in the Czech Republic. Karel Bor brings with him over 20 years of professional experience within the real estate industry including brokerage, advisory and property development.  

SGI SA has sold the Lastadia Office in Szczecin to a company managed by Greenstone Sp. z o.o. Lastadia was delivered to the market in 2013 and offers ca. 12,500 sqm of GLA. It is located at the banks of Oder River along Wały Chrobrego and is fully let to international and Polish tenants.

The BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland team was joined at the beginning of March by Piotr Krawczyński who took up the position of Head of Capital Markets CEE. His responsibilities will include client acquisition and coordination of property purchase/sale transactions across Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, his scope of duties will also involve consultancy services in respect of property investment finance.