Over €5.7 billion - this is how much investors spent on commercial real estate in Poland throughout 2021, of which in the last quarter alone, the amount attained over €2.2 billion. The latest report prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland indicates that the past year was marked by a further strengthening of the logistics and industrial sector, making up for losses by retail and the continued battle against Covid's shortage of breath in the office sector.

The Polish branch of BNP Paribas Real Estate represented one of the Asian clients of the BNP Group in the acquisition process of a distribution centre in Świebodzin In Western Poland, which was developed by Panattoni. The Korean fund became the new owner. The property with a GLA of 190,000 sqm is fully leased to Amazon, one of the largest e-commerce providers in the world.

The volume of real estate investments in Romania gained 4% year-on-year to €919.45 million, driven by office and industrial developments, according to a report by real estate consultancy Fortim T.A., a member of BNP Paribas Real Estate. 

108 Agency has purchased 100% of the shares of BNP Paribas Real Estate APM CR s.r.o., the Czech subsidiary of BNP Paribas Real Estate. 108 Agency was retained as preferred buyer after a competitive auction and immediately becomes the alliance partner of BNP Paribas Real Estate in the Czech Republic.

The latest report by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland shows that in the first three quarters of this year, a record demand for warehouses was noted, amounting to almost 4.8 million sqm. The company’s analysts also point out that movement at construction sites, where work is currently underway, has also set a new record, with more than 3.7 million sqm of modern office space under construction. As in previous quarters, the development of the sector together with an increased demand for logistics spaces, have been primarily driven by a rise in e-commerce, as well as an increase of companies operating in the logistics and trade sectors.

In Q3, the commercial real estate investment market revived and was accompanied by a much greater optimism than during the previous periods of 2021. Logistics and industrial space are still the leaders among the sectors. An important event was again the change of ownership of the Warsaw Metropolitan office building, the value of which exceeded PLN 1 billion

The commercial real estate market, together with many other economic areas, after being impacted heavily by the Covid pandemic, is undergoing recovery. These positive indicators are also mirrored in the retail real estate sector. Recent figures indicate that retail parks and convenience centres are recovering strongly as are discount shops, while large shopping centres are reporting increasing footfall levels, optimistic economic outlook; these are the key highlights from Q3 of the year. The analysis of the retail real estate sector was prepared by experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate.

During Q3, the modern office space stock located outside of Warsaw grew by less than 20,000 sqm. Throughout this period, tenants have leased over 113,000 sqm of space, mainly through the signing of new contracts, or by contract renewals. Office employees have slowly been returning to the offices, tenants were waking-up to the new, hybrid reality and owners of office buildings and property managers began to deliberate more and more about rising utility costs. This is what the 3rd quarter snapshot mirrors in the regional office markets, as per the summary prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate experts.

At the end of Q2 2021, developers were working on projects set to increase Poland’s stock of modern space by more than 3.3 million sqm. This represents a result not previously recorded for a single quarter as there is c.a. 34% more under construction than in the previous quarter

What will offices look like once the pandemic is over? Five quarters of a health crisis later and there is still no clear answer for Warsaw’s office market. Prudent decision-making and waiting to see what happens as observed for the last few quarters on the one hand, with evident landlord flexibility, great expectations as to the vaccination rate in the capital, unfreezing of decision-making processes regarding office leases and the decidedly growing need and desire to return to office working on the other hand. Analysts at BNP Paribas Real Estate discuss the key trends prevailing on the capital’s office market to summarize the second quarter of the year.