2020 has been dominated on the commercial real estate market in Poland by the pandemic, whose impact varied from sector to sector though. The pandemic has, however, given rise to or accelerated a number of developments, some of which are likely to stay with us for longer. Real estate advisory firm Savills explores future trends in its preliminary summary of 2020 and its outlook for the next 12 months.

Operational residential investment (which comprises multifamily, student housing and senior living assets) accounted for 27% of global real estate investment in the first three quarters of 2020, up from just 16% a decade ago, according to the Savills Global Living Report 2020.

This year is likely to be the best for the Polish warehouse and industrial market, predicts Savills, with leasing activity already setting an all-time high in Q1-Q3 2020. Occupier take-up predominantly came from food retailers operating without any disruption despite restrictions imposed on other retail sectors and from e-commerce, including logistics operators serving e-retailers.

According to Savills latest research, total property investment activity in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for Q1-Q3 2020 was €7.6 billion, the third-highest volume on record, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. Total investment volumes by year-end are forecast to surpass €10 billion, which would be in line with the five-year average.

Iceland, Sweden and Norway show top potential for hyperscale and cloud-scale data centre investment, followed closely by Denmark and the Netherlands according to research from Savills. The CEE region is also becoming more important in strategic plans for key players, with Poland having the potential of being in its heart.

According to the latest Savills research, Prague’s office real estate market is fairly priced despite some minor outward prime yield movement during the first half of the year. This broader continent-wide outward yield movement has helped push the average yield spread between prime European offices and Eurozone government bonds to 325 basis points, more than 100 bps above the historic average.

Immofinanz has appointed Savills as sole property manager for its portfolio of seven office buildings in Prague, Czech Republic, with effect from January 2021. The total floor area of the assets is approximately 123,000 sqm.

According to Savills’ latest research, Europe will see an additional 11.6 million sqm of warehouse demand due to the manufacturing sector by the end of 2022, based on Capital Economics forecasts data.

The investment volume on the Polish commercial property market is estimated to have reached €1.05 billion in Q3 2020. According to Savills, the industrial sector accounted for approximately 70% of that total, which illustrates the current investor preference for logistics properties, especially facilities dedicated to e-commerce.

North Gate, an office building in Warsaw, has seen completion of its comprehensive upgrade, with all its communal areas fully refurbished and new amenities provided to tenants.