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.

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.

225,000 sqm of total space, 82,000 sqm of GLA with 76,000 sqm allocated to retail and F&B, 6,000 sqm of office space, over 200 shops and 36 restaurants, the tallest shopfront windows in Poland (over 7 m high), 10 screen multiplex cinema with comfortable, recliner seating, a 200 sqm stage/event area, 2,500 sqm green terrace area, 2,000 parking spaces, 20 coworking spaces – these are some of the numbers which can be used to describe the Galeria Mlociny shopping centre which will open on 23 May.

Panattoni Europe has embarked on the construction of Panattoni Park Silesia South in Bieruń, 7 km from the centre of Tychy. The project will total 73,000 sqm, and its first tenant is Havi Logistics, poised to take up 13,000 sqm. The 35,000 sqm to be delivered in phase one of the project will be available already in the coming October. HAVI was advised in the deal by JLL.

Globalworth announced the conditional agreement for the acquisition of two investments in Poland, which were identified as part of its acquisition pipeline announced on 11 March 2019, for a combined transaction value of €113.2 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of July 2019, subject to the fulfilment of customary conditions.

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.

JSE-listed EPP successfully completed an equity raise of ZAR 1.45 billion equating to approximately €90 million. The Polish retail company will use the equity to fund tranche 2 of its M1 portfolio transaction. The company expects to complete tranche 2 of the M1 transaction by June of this year. The deal is expected to add an additional 184,000 sqm of retail GLA to EPP’s portfolio.

A fund managed by GLL Real Estate Partners has acquired Gatehouse Offices – an office building constructed by Echo Investment at Warsaw Brewery complex, with the space leased by such companies as L’Oréal Polska, WeWork, Epam Systems Poland and Sony Interactive Entertainment Polska. The parties signed a preliminary agreement in November last year.

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.