The first quarter of 2019 proved to be a very good one for the industrial sector in Poland - the gross take-up exceeded 800,000 sqm with more than 620,000 sqm being delivered to the market, and approx. two million sqm under construction. JLL summarized the situation on the Polish industrial market at the end of Q1 2019.

JLL advised Atrium European Real Estate Limited in the disposal process of two Polish shopping centres, namely Atrium Felicity and Atrium Koszalin to the ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II, managed by the independent fund managing company ECE Real Estate Partners. The parties signed on 9th May 2019 an agreement concerning the sale of both assets for €298 million, representing around 3% premium to book value as at 31 March 2019. The transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions precedent and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019.

Poland's office market in Q1 2019 saw office supply growing, vacancy rates dropping comparing to the last year, and demand predominantly being driven by IT, services and manufacturing. Advisory firm JLL summarised the situation on the Polish office market at the end of Q1 2019.

In the first quarter of this year, residential developers on the six major markets in Poland sold 16,500 new flats, repeating the result attained in Q4 2018. During this same period, a similar number, 16,800 units, were put up for sale. Poznań and Łódź are experiencing a late boom, as sales on these markets reached record highs in Q1 2019, according to JLL’s latest report.

LPP SA, the biggest Polish clothing manufacturer in Central and Eastern Europe (owner of five fashion brands: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito, and Sinsay) in line with its development strategy for the coming years, leased 25,400 sqm of industrial space from PNK Group in PNK Park SEREĎ in Slovakia. The contract provides for an option to lease another 7,300 sqm in the same building within three years. Therefore, the company could occupy the entire second building of the PNK Park SEREĎ with an area of 32,700 sqm. JLL acted as a consultant for the preparation and execution of this lease contract which is one of the biggest transactions recently recorded in the Slovak market.

JLL Slovak Capital Markets & Advisory team has successfully advised on closing a sale of an industrial and commercial park in Vráble. JLL team acted on behalf of the seller, a real estate investment and asset management company, which disposed its industrial asset in Western Slovakia to Proxenta Investment Group. The value of the transaction remains confidential.

Penta Real Estate has sold the Business Centrum Tesla 2 office building project in Košice to Austrian company European City Estates. BCT 2 provides 14,600 square meters of office space. The largest tenants are T-Systems Slovakia, Deloitte, Diebold-Nixdorf and Colonnade. On the seller side, the transaction was advised by JLL. The purchase price was not disclosed upon agreement between the parties.

Ghelamco Poland has completed the sale of the Wronia 31 office scheme located in the centre of Wola’s business district. The property was acquired by LaSalle Investment Management (LaSalle), one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers with $65 billion of assets under management across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Total demand for offices in Warsaw during Q1 2019 was more than 140,000 sqm. Approx. 750,000 sqm of space is under construction. Tenant activity is expected to grow, and the market is waiting for spectacular projects to be finalized. JLL summarised the Warsaw office market in Q1 2019.

Developers are revising their strategies. The convenience centre and mixed-use projects segment is growing. 2019 could see 430,000 sqm of new retail space in Poland. JLL summarised conditions on Poland's retail market at the end of Q1 2019.