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.

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.