The drop in footfall numbers in the majority of shopping centres combined with a drop in turnover, as well as ongoing talks between tenants and shopping centre owners have caused a slowdown or even temporary suspension of development plans of some retail chains, especially those in the fashion sector. JLL summarised conditions on Poland's retail market at the end of H1 2020.

Poland’s real estate investment volume for the first half of 2020 has reached €2.9 billion which is the second-best H1 result in history. €710 million was invested in offices alone during the “pandemic quarter” with the industrial sector registering its best-ever H1 result. JLL analysed H1 2020 real estate investment transactions in Poland.  

Spanish investment fund Danube Property, which acquired four office buildings in Bucharest prior to the 2008 crisis, plans to sell its last asset on the Romanian market, after selling another one during the state of emergency, profit.ro reports.

After the Polish government announced a major reopening of the retail economy last month, outlets are seeing more than 80% of footfall on average, with convenience centres attracting between 90% to 100% clients as compared to the previous year. Such positive results are due to the fact that these types of centres are shopping destinations in their own right but only offer a limited number of options for spending free time. However, this paradoxically is now working in favour of outlet centres and convenience centres.

JLL has advised Rosti Romania, owned by the Swedish company Rosti Group AB, in the lease of 11,300 sqm industrial spaces in Paulesti, near Ploiesti, developed and rented out by WDP. The construction of the new production facility, announced by Rosti at the end of last year, has already started and the delivery date is set for 2021.

Gross demand in Q1 2020 was almost 950,000 sqm with new deals and expansions dominating the market. New space delivered in the first quarter of 2020 totalled 440,000 sqm. JLL summarised the situation on the Polish industrial market at the end of Q1 2020.

Profi, one of the largest retail chains in Romania, expands its logistic activities by contracting two new projects in Timisoara (58,000 sqm) and Craiova (57,000 sqm), which will be developed and rented out by Belgian logistics developer WDP. JLL has advised Profi in both transactions, thus continuing the partnership started few years ago, which resulted in 250,000 sqm of logistics space contracted in Bucharest, Roman, Cluj, Craiova and Timisoara.

The COVID-19 pandemic has to put a halt to years of uninterrupted growth on the Romanian property investment market. Andrei Vacaru, Head of Capital Markets at JLL Romania shared his market outlook with Property Forum.

This year’s first quarter on Poland’s regional office markets was marked by a high level of activity from tenants in the IT sector. The next few months may bring acceleration in activity from companies in the business services sector. JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market at the end of Q1 2020.

PNK Group, an international industrial real estate developer, concluded the sale of two of its modern industrial buildings with a total area of 45,000 square meters in its industrial park near Bratislava. The facilities in PNK Park Sered’, providing a regional base for Polish fast-fashion conglomerate LPP and German-based manufacturer in automotive industry Wegu, were acquired by the REICO IS ČS on behalf of ČS nemovitostní fond, for €30.6 million.