Although employment in the shared services sector is growing by the year, this has not led to stronger demand for office space. However, SSC/BPO/R&D centres remain key office tenants in Kraków and Wrocław. Warsaw also continues to feature on corporates’ radars, says Newmark Poland.

Around 500 colleagues based in Hungary’s second-biggest city will move to the new location, state-of-the-art Forest Offices in 2023.

In total, 16,000 sqm of Class A office space has been delivered in the second largest city of Hungary. The building was developed by a local company, Dryvit Profi, realista.hu reports.

The implementation of the office projects under construction is in full swing in Kraków. The construction of new buildings will depend, however, on the demand for offices from the business services sector, which is its main recipient on the Kraków market, according to consultancy company Walter Herz.

DSV, a global supplier of transport and logistics services, has closed the sell-and-lease-back transaction with French investor, Corum Asset Management, for the new DSV International Shared Service Centre in Warsaw’s Mokotow Business District. The total leasable area (GLA) of the project is 20,000 sqm. Cushman & Wakefield advised the seller.

Bucharest and the major university centres in Romania, such as Cluj-Napoca, Timişoara, Iaşi, Braşov or Craiova, are well-positioned to attract new business in the services sector, despite the Covid-19 pandemic that slowed down the transactional activity and led companies to work from home, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

Companies from the BPO/SSC industry in Kraków and the Tri-City recorded the highest share for demand in the office sector. JLL summarized the activities of companies from the business services sector on the major office markets in Poland.

BPO/SSC take-up totalled over 60% of all-sector office take-up in 4 key BPO cities (Wroclaw, Lodz, Krakow and Sofia) in H1 2017. Vacant stock is diminishing, due to this demand impulse and strong general economic conditions. Labour availability and employee tech knowhow uplift are significant factors which influence the demand for space, according to a report by Colliers International. The key findings of the report include:

With a 4.8%-GDP growth in 2016 and the highest estimated growth rate in 2017 among EU member states, Romania has become an increasingly attractive destination for regional operations centres. The tax and legal regimes along with the geographic location, as well as the highly yet not so costly labour force are some of the key ingredients contributing to the country’s attractiveness, according to the Recipe for successful tax, law & real estate of regional operations centres in Romania report prepared by Deloitte Romania, Reff & Associates- Deloitte Legal together with Knight Frank. 

PwC has decided to extend its office space in Silesia Business Park in Katowice by over 2,000 sqm and plans to employ over 300 specialists. As a result, 100% of the leasable space in building A of the complex is leased now.