ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG regional

Recently, there has been significantly more activity in the Warsaw office market compared to regional markets, both in terms of demand and new investments. As of last year, the demand for office space in Warsaw has increased, while overall demand has decreased in the region. There are also more vacancies in the regional markets, says Walter Herz.

The scale of office projects implemented in Poland today is much smaller than in previous years, and the demand for space is still high, says Walter Herz. 

In the first half of 2022, demand for offices in the Polish largest regional cities was higher than in the entire 2021. Also office assets in such locations are now one of the main targets for investors, says Avison Young Poland.

According to a report published by Newmark Polska, occupier demand remained relatively strong in Poland’s regional city office markets throughout the second quarter of this year amid gradually shrinking office availability. However, persistently high construction costs and rising financing costs continued to limit developers activity on the regional office markets.

According to Walter Herz, the beginning of the year brought a revival in demand for offices. Katowice now has a larger offer than Poznań and rental rates for the best space in Warsaw have increased.

New office supply in regional cities in Poland hit a record high of 243,500 sqm in Q1 2022, representing an uplift of 5% on the previous peak in Q4 2019, reveals Savills. More new office space was delivered in the first three months of this year alone than in the whole of 2021.

The first quarter of the year was another very demanding time for the regional office markets. They have been confronted with exactly the same challenges as Warsaw’s office market – increasing maintenance costs, higher rents’ perspective, more expensive and longer fit-outs as well as delayed construction processes. The future boon may be the emigration of Russian specialists from high-skilled technology industries, including IT, who fill in the talent pool in the regional cities, which are hubs for the IT Products and Services sector.

According to a new report published by Newmark Polska, the first quarter of 2022 was marked in Poland’s regional city office markets by high supply levels, stable demand and a shrinking volume of space under construction. With office availability remaining high in some cities, office tenants still have many options to choose from.

More than 50% of the industrial and logistics projects under construction in Romania are already pre-leased with leasing activity in Q1 2021 rising by 50% to over 300,000 sqm compared to the same quarter of 2021, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

The Polish Chamber of CommercialReal Estate (PINK) has published figures summarizing the office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q1 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, Savills) and includes information on existing modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.