According to Walter Herz, the beginning of the year brought a revival in demand for offices. Katowice now has a larger offer than Poznań and rental rates for the best space in Warsaw have increased.

Carbon Tower in Wrocław, Ocean Office Park A and Tischnera Office in Kraków – this is a real estate package that is to be acquired by an affiliate of Lone Star Funds. The buildings, belonging to Cavatina Holding, one of Poland's largest office developers, offer a total of nearly 66 thousand sqm of GLA, and their average lease rate is at the level of approx. 90%. The planned buy/sell deal is another portfolio transaction of Cavatina Group, which in 2020 sold three Equal Business Park office buildings (A, B and C).

Savills has opened an office in Tricity led by Piotr Skuza. The Savills Gdańsk office will deliver advisory services to tenants, investors and landlords of office, retail, industrial and warehouse properties and the PRS sector. Savills experts will provide assistance in office and warehouse lease transactions, property and land acquisition, as well as technical advisory and property management.

A part of the Prague-based residential project Hagibor, which is being built by Crestyl Group, is now owned by Invesco Real Estate. The acquisition concerns the third phase of the residential part of the project, namely the Delta building, which is already under construction and is to be used for rental housing in the future. The price of the transaction, which was reported by the daily E15, was not published.

It's been a good, strong start to 2022 in Poland's office market, which offers hope that a long-awaited boom in demand is coming after a market slump. Companies have adapted to the new working conditions, and due to the easing of restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, they have launched a campaign to encourage employees back into offices. On the other hand, Warsaw and the eight largest regional markets, i.e., Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Lublin, may face a slowdown in new supply in the coming months. AXI IMMO looks at the current trends after Q1 2022 in the office market and analyses what will influence its development in the following months of the year.

EPP has finalised the sale of its 70% stake in the Towarowa 22 mixed-use project in Warsaw to AFI Europe. It is historically one of the largest land transactions in Poland in terms of value, with the total plot value exceeding €180 million.

New office supply in regional cities in Poland hit a record high of 243,500 sqm in Q1 2022, representing an uplift of 5% on the previous peak in Q4 2019, reveals Savills. More new office space was delivered in the first three months of this year alone than in the whole of 2021.

The Prague office market in Q1 2022 experienced a further increase in vacancy, across the entire city. However, gross take-up recorded a year-on-year increase of 44% and thus returned to pre-pandemic levels. The increase in prices throughout the city is still felt especially in construction projects, mainly due to rising costs for materials and construction work, reports the Czech branch of Colliers in their regular survey.

According to the latest, fourth edition of a survey conducted by Zymetria (an analytical and research company) on behalf of Skanska's commercial development business unit, after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, 9 out of 10 Polish office employees believe that the traditional office is irreplaceable. Today, more than half of Poles work in a hybrid model – this translates to an almost double increase compared to May 2021. In addition, the hybrid is also the most preferred way of working – it is favoured by 70% of the respondents.

Hungarian lender OTP Bank's new 84,000 sqm complex, built by Market Zrt. and called M12. It is 7 stories high, with a 3-level underground garage.