Last year was a demanding period for the office market and a test for us, which we managed to successfully pass, says Katarzyna Zawodna-Bijoch, President and CEO at Skanska’s commercial development business unit in Central & Eastern Europe (CEE). In 2022, we will witness safe and futureproof workplaces, new technologies as well as Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) areas becoming increasingly important, with the latter being subject to continuous intensive analyses as a business trend.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced its entry into Poland with the 205-room Wyndham Wrocław Old Town. Managed by Mogotel Hotel Group the hotel is expected to open early next month and will be located in the heart of Wrocław's city center.

A lending transaction worth appr. €78.3 million (PLN 355 million) related to the refinancing of a residential portfolio is the first joint venture of Resi4Rent and ING Bank Śląski. 

Crescendo Real Estate Advisors has finalized the sale of a BTS facility, located in Gliwice, which was built for DPD Polska. Palmira Capital Partners’ acquisition of the property for the European Core Logistics Fund (ECLF) was completed in December 2021. 

Echo Investment signed a preliminary sale agreement for three office buildings in Fuzja Łódź, that will be acquired for over €56.4 million by KGAL Group, an independent investment and asset manager. The buildings encompass 22,000 sqm of BREEAM-certified office space. They are a part of mixed-use Fuzja, a project revitalizing a post-industrial area of Łódź.

Despite almost all European office employees working from home last year the empty workplaces did not lead to a reduction in the expenditure that companies had to fulfil had the workforce been in the office. The average costs per FTE fell by only 2% and amounted to €9,468. These findings have been published by Colliers, Occupier Cost Index (OCI), which comprises data from 29 countries, 3,990 buildings, 26.1 million square meters of office space and 1.96 million FTEs.

Griffin Capital Partners is the new name of the rebranded investment and asset manager Griffin Real Estate. By changing its name and revising its visual identity, the company wants to highlight the shift to private equity that has taken place in Griffin’s investment strategy over the last years.

2021 was a year of unprecedented activity of Czech investors and developers on the Polish real estate market. Czech entities are competing with major German, American and Israeli players and so far they are performing very well in the race for the best assets.   

Net lease real estate investment trust W.P. Carey has added seven DIY retail stores in Poland to its portfolio. The NYSE-listed company has bought the newly built assets totalling 70,000 sqm from private real estate firm Supernova Group for an undisclosed sum. The stores are triple-net leased to OBI for a term of 15 years with Eurozone CPI-based rent increases.

MLP Group is embarking on a project to build rooftop solar power systems at ten logistic parks making up its Polish property portfolio. The project has been contracted to Quanta Energy. The PV panels will cover an aggregate area of about 120,000 sqm, featuring a total capacity of 5.93 MWp. The project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2023.