Q3 2022 saw up to a 30% q/q drop in the number of flats sold on the primary markets of Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Poznań and Łódź. The total number of flats sold in these markets was only 6,600. JLL experts emphasise that the last time such low demand for real estate occurred in Q2 2020 when sales offices were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic wave.

Q3 2022 in the Warsaw office market saw record-low developer activity. At the end of September, only 160,000 sqm of space was under construction. As a result, new supply is expected to drop significantly in 2023, with only 60,000 sqm of office space coming to the market, JLL reports.

Berlin-based Catella Residential Investment Management GmbH has sold two centrally located fully-let residential and student housing assets in Warsaw and Kraków in Poland to institutional investors in Austria and the Netherlands for more than €60 million on behalf of Munich-headquartered AIFM platform Catella Real Estate AG (CREAG).

We can see more interest coming from government entities to rent office space in modern office buildings in CEE. We also see large companies centralising their office spaces in a single building. Property Forum asked Tomasz Lisiecki, CEO of TriGranit about his assessment of these trends.

Trei Real Estate and Jones Lang LaSalle Poland jointly published a new market report on retail parks and convenience centres in Poland. Here are the key findings: Within the retail sector as a whole, investors focus primarily on retail parks, convenience centres, DIY stores and food markets. Prime yields for high-end retail parks have maintained a stable level between 6.5 and 6.75%. The Polish retail investment market saw five banner years of very strong investment volumes between 2015 and 2019, each achieving a transaction total of €2.0 billion to 2.5 billion. The year-end volumes of 2020 and 2021 were significantly lower at c. €750 million and €1.0 billion, respectively. By contrast, investments in 2022 already stood at c. €760 million by mid-year. Accordingly, Trei and JLL Poland feel optimistic about 2022 as a whole.

According to Savills, development activity has cooled dramatically in the Warsaw office market. There is currently close to 230,000 sqm under construction, of which just over 115,000 sqm is scheduled for completion in 2023–2024.

Since the beginning of the year, five companies have decided to lease a total of 10,000 sqm of office space in Warsaw Spire C, which is almost half of the building. The majority of contracts are renewals of existing leases, two contracts were concluded as green leases. The occupancy rate in Warsaw Spire C is currently over 96%.

Błażej Czwarnok and Marcin Muszel, Partners in the Real Estate Practice at Gide Loyrette Nouel spoke with Property Forum about the PRS market, economic turbulence caused by the war in Ukraine and legislative changes coming to the Polish real estate sector.

Piotr Szafarz, Partner, Head of Real Estate in Poland and CEE, Dentons talked to Property Forum about the forecasts for the PRS market in Poland, the impact of the war in Ukraine on the European properties and the expected changes in financing conditions.

The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures summarizing office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q3 2022. The data is sourced from advisory companies from the commercial real estate sector (BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Colliers, Cushman&Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank, Newmark Polska, Savills) and includes information on existing modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.