According to Savills, commercial property investment activity hit €2.92 billion across Poland in H1 2020, up by almost 5% on the same period in 2019. Despite COVID-19 challenges, it was the second-best result in the first half of a year on record. Savills anticipates that the pandemic’s impact will be noticeable in H2 2020, but the investment volume is unlikely to fall by more than 20% compared to last year’s all-time high.

What will the Warsaw office market look like in the next 18 months? Experts of Savills have outlined two potential scenarios. Both scenarios foresee a short-term decrease in demand and rising vacancy rates, but with a different scale of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Polish capital’s office market. Both also forecast that the market will remain resilient in the long term.

Savills has been appointed sole letting agent for office space in Eximius Park, an office complex on the outskirts of Kraków. The buildings of the complex have been upgraded since they changed hands and are now ready to welcome new tenants.

According to Savills, the average spread between prime industrial and prime shopping centre yields across mainland Europe has converged for the first time in its historic series as demand for logistics and soars as a result of increased levels in e-commerce.

Warsaw is among the top 10 European cities for the fintech sector. According to Savills, which prepared the ranking, the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitalisation of the banking sector and Poland provides a favourable environment for fintechs to expand.

Savills has been appointed as sole office and retail space letting agent for Giant Office, a newly-completed office development in Poznań.

Eiffage Immobilier Polska has appointed Savills to seek an investment partner for the development of a bespoke 453-unit build-to-rent opportunity in Warsaw within a secured development pipeline of over 2,300 units across Poland’s top five cities.

Marynarska Point 2, an office building in Warsaw owned by Bluehouse Capital, is currently undergoing refurbishment. As part of the work underway, its reception lobby will be fully remodelled. The building’s surroundings will also be redesigned.

European real estate investment activity is set to plummet by 50% before rebounding sharply within the next 12 months, according to Savills, who predicts that neither the speed or the depth of the crash will be as bad as the global financial crisis when volumes across the continent plunged by 72% between 2007-2009.

Savills has been appointed property manager of Posejdon, a €78 million (PLN 350 million) office, conference and hotel complex in Szczecin. The building is entering an operational phase, with more office tenants moving in and the first retail stores now open. The opening of two hotels (four- and three-star hotels) is scheduled for the second half of 2020.