Poland remains an attractive destination for investments and this is reflected in the impressive results on the office markets both in Warsaw and regional cities. With ambitious plans, investors are looking to the future with optimism. JLL summarized the situation on the Polish office market in 2017.

In 2017, real estate transactions hit a record-breaking volume of € 5 billion, up by nearly 10% on the previous year. Bank financing for properties remained unchanged, averaging approximately 60% of each property’s value. Cushman & Wakefield has published its opinion on the commercial property lending market in Poland, written by Mira Kantor-Pikus, Partner, Equity, Debt & Structured Finance, Capital Markets at Cushman & Wakefield Poland.

European office rental growth slowed to 0.4% over the quarter, though still posted a respectable 2.4% annualised growth. Budapest led the way with growth of 9.1% across the quarter, supported by strong demand, historically-low vacancy rates and a lack of Class A space. Demand for logistics space is supporting rental growth and driving yields lower across Europe, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate report.

Developer activity remains strong despite high retail space saturation in many Polish cities. Magdalena Sadal, Head of Retail Research & Advisory at Cresa Poland, talks about retail space saturation and the purchasing potential in Poland’s largest agglomerations.

2017 witnessed robust leasing activity that was driven largely by the financial services sector, which amid moderate supply pushed Warsaw’s office vacancy rate down to 11.7%, the lowest since Q3 2013. Cushman & Wakefield presented an overview of the Warsaw office market for 2017.

The Polish Office Research Forum has published its figures for 2017 for the office market in eight major regional cities in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Szczecin, Lublin). The market data prepared by a team of analysts includes modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.

The Warsaw office market recorded the second highest demand in the market's history along with record-breaking net absorption. This perfectly summarizes the sentiments on the city's office market. Furthermore, expectations for 2018 remain highly favourable, JLL reports.

2017 was a record breaking year for the Bulgarian office market with almost 200,000 sqm take-up in Sofia. The investment volume has also been the strongest ever with €1 billion invested in commercial property (land acquisitions included) from which income generating assets hold €870 million. Cushman & Wakefield Forton summarised 2017 on the Bulgarian office, retail and industrial markets.

At ca. €12.98 billion, 2017 recorded a 3.3% increase over 2016 (€12.56 billion) and, for the second year running, set a new record transaction volume for the CEE region. JLL has registered continued appetite from investors for the full range of assets across the entire region.

The total investment volume in Slovakia for 2017 was recorded at just under €525 million, with more than two thirds being closed in the second half of the year. The volume is below JLL‘s €600 million estimation as several deals did not close before the year end and will slip into 2018.