Microsoft and Skanska’s office unit in Poland have signed an agreement on strategic cooperation in the area of PropTech. It provides for expert knowledge exchange and the use of advanced data analytics solutions, AI mechanisms and cloud computing to create breakthrough innovations for the office real estate sector. The partners will also work together to develop presentations of Skanska's development projects using mixed reality and Microsoft HoloLens glasses and the analytical part of the Connected by Skanska system.

Avison Young, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, a global commercial real estate services firm, enters the Polish market with the acquisition of UK-based GVA advisory company.

In 2018, Echo Investment signed lease agreements for a total office area of nearly 80,000 sqm. This year also seems to be busy - the company plans to start construction of approximately 100,000 sqm of offices including in Warsaw, Wrocław, Łódź and Kraków. Projects with a total area of 150,000 sqm are being prepared.

Last year’s demand for office space on Poland’s markets was 1.5 million sqm. 744,000 sqm of office space was delivered to market while a further 1.6 million sqm is under construction, according to JLL’s report.

2018 was a record-breaking year for the Polish commercial property investment market. The total volume of transactions completed in the office, retail, warehouse and logistics as well as hotel sectors came to nearly €7.3 billion, which represents a y-o-y growth of approx. 41%. This is a result not previously recorded on the Polish market, according to a report by BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland.

Globalworth Poland has taken further steps to manage its Polish real estate portfolio in-house. Between December and January, the company took on the property management of Lumen and Skylight in Warsaw, West Gate in Wrocław, the A4 Business Park in Katowice and Tryton Business House in Gdańsk. Since the company entered the market, Globalworth has gradually internalized the property management of a series of buildings and now handles directly 250,000 sqm in only about one year, which constitutes almost 60% of its portfolio in Poland.

Mitiska REIM, a specialist investor in European retail parks, announced a major new strategic partnership with Karuzela Holding. Under the terms of the agreement, Mitiska REIM and Karuzela will form a joint venture in Poland, and Mitiska REIM’s FRI 2 fund will acquire a 50% holding in 2 retail parks and 2 gallerias owned by Karuzela, with a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 35,600 sqm, and both parties will co-develop 4 additional projects with a total GLA of approximately 60,000 sqm.

Hines and Zeus Capital Management announced the completion of the sale and purchase of the Graffit building in Warsaw. The property owned by Hines Russia & Poland Fund (HRPF) was sold to TAN Poland Sp. z o.o., a company managed by Zeus Capital Management. This is Zeus’ first investment in Poland and it is part of its commercial real estate platform dedicated to Central and South East Europe.

New retail supply amounted to approximately 420,000 sqm in 2018, pushing Poland’s total retail stock up by 3% to 14.7 million sqm. Nearly 30% of the new supply was completed in small-scale shopping centres and retail parks (sized below 20,000 sqm). Extensions of existing shopping centres and retail parks delivered approximately 60,000 sqm of new retail space. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of the Polish retail market in 2018.

At the end of 2018, Warsaw’s total office stock stood at 5.46 million sqm. Despite last year’s supply gap, which is expected to carry into 2019, new supply totalled 232,700 sqm delivered across 20 office projects, down by 70,000 sqm on the five-year average for 2012–2017. Cushman & Wakefield presented a summary of 2018 on the Warsaw office market.