ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG Poland

COVID-19 has had a great impact on the economy as well as consumers’ behaviour, which has naturally influenced the property market. Pandemic unexpectedly accelerated changes noticed for the last few years, such as the diminishing role of traditional shopping centres in favour of convenience retail, the boom of e-commerce market or working from home. According to Avison Young, investors have quickly accommodated to new conditions and even despite many uncertainties, investment volume has achieved third-highest level in the history – €5.3 billion.

Skyliner, one of the highest office towers in Warsaw developed by Karimpol, has obtained an occupancy permit. The skyscraper was designed by APA Wojciechowski. Tenants will start moving into the building in the first half of 2021.

Tenant activity in 2020 was 31% lower than in 2019, with developers being much more cautious about launching new developments than in previous years. As a result, this could lead to a supply gap in the Warsaw market. Advisory firm JLL summarizes the Warsaw office market at the end of 2020.

JSE-listed EPP, the largest owner of shopping centres in Poland, announces the appointment of Agata Sekuła as the company’s Executive Management Team Member responsible for sales and acquisitions. Agata will join EPP from 1 March 2021 and be responsible for executing the EPP’s divestment and investment plans, with particular focus on acquiring institutional co-investors for EPP’s retail portfolio.

Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) transacted more than €2.5 billion globally in 2020, including c. €2.1 billion in Europe and c. €2457 million in Asia. Globally, transactions included nearly €1.7 billion of acquisitions and €833 million of disposals, resulting in a net investment of €842 million. The firm now manages approximately €21.2 billion (over USD 25 billion) in assets under management (AuM), a company record.

Panattoni has announced another project in Wielkopolska. Panattoni Park Poznań East Gate is to be built on a 10 ha plot in the administrative district of Swarzędz near Poznań. This will be Panattoni’s first park to the east of Poznań. Construction work is starting in the second quarter of the year.

Vastint Poland has sold the Brama Portowa office building complex in Szczecin. The new owner is FLE SICAV FIS managed by FLE GmbH from Vienna. The price has not been disclosed. Vastint was supported in the sale process by experts from Knight Frank’s Capital Markets department.

Amazon continues to invest in Poland and will create over 1,000 new permanent jobs in Swiebodzin within a year of opening. Its tenth facility in Poland will include advanced Amazon Robotics technology, with 3,000 robotic drive units supporting the company’s associates.

Polish logistics company Uniq Logistic has become a tenant at another MLP Group park. The company will take up a total of over 17,000 sqm of space and will operate from two key locations in Pruszków and Łódź starting from the second quarter of 2021. Axi Immo supported the Group in the transaction.

With a loan amount of €82.2 million, Helaba is financing the acquisition of the prime office property Lixa in Warsaw. The first stage of the investment was purchased by Hana Investment Co. Ltd., a South Korean consortium represented by Commerz Real. The loan term is for five years and Helaba is acting as sole underwriter for the transaction.