Real estate advisory firm Savills estimates that the prices of building materials for new commercial real estate construction in Poland increased by close to 30% in the past 12 months and expects demand for technical consultancy to grow. The Building & Project Consultancy team of Savills Poland has summarised its activity in 2021, a year in which it completed close to 60 projects for commercial properties with a combined area of 1.5 million sq m and almost doubled its headcount.

Real estate advisory firm Savills has been appointed as sole letting agent for office space in West Forum in Wrocław. The office complex is owned by GNT Ventures Properties managed by TFG Asset Management.

New York and San Francisco have emerged as the most expensive flexible office markets worldwide, while Berlin is one of the fastest-growing European markets, according to Workthere, a flexible office listing platform launched by Savills, that helps occupiers find flexible workspace.

Warimpex, a real estate development and investment company based in Vienna, has appointed Savills as the exclusive leasing adviser for office space in its new office complex located in Białystok at the junction of Bohaterów Monte Cassino and Wyszyńskiego streets. The phased project is expected to break ground this year.

Real estate advisory firm Savills anticipates that some of the immediate knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine on the Polish logistics market will include sustained demand for new warehouse projects amid construction difficulties and a prospect of rental growth in ready-to-occupy facilities.

Preliminary figures compiled by Savills suggest that the total real estate investment volume in Europe for the first quarter of the year will reach approximately €70 billion, a 19.5% increase year-on-year. Despite geopolitical events, the real estate advisor expects solid European investment activity for the remainder of the year, notably fuelled by large portfolio and entity deals.

Kamil Kowa, Member of the Board at Savills Poland talked to Property Forum about the rapid development of the Polish private rental sector, its attractiveness for investors and the current state of PBSA industry.

Driven by large-scale mergers and acquisitions, European multifamily investment volumes in the 12 countries analysed reached approximately €92.3 billion in 2021, a 79% increase y-o-y and a 120% increase on the past five-year average, according to Savills. In Poland, multifamily investment activity hit an all-time high of close to €725 million in 2021.

Czech investment company REICO investiční společnost České spořitelny, a.s. (REICO IS ČS) as of February has appointed Savills as property manager for its Prague office complex Bořislavka. Savills will work in cooperation with Active Retail Asset Management (ARAM) who will manage the retail scheme within the asset.  

According to Savills, the e-commerce boom is continuing to drive demand for industrial and logistics assets across Europe, as new records were set for both levels of investment and leasing activity in 2021. In Poland, take-up in 2021 reached an all-time high and industrial assets accounted for over a half of the total investment volume.