Poland’s warehouse market is set to maintain a strong momentum this year, driven by robust occupier interest with demand outstripping supply for many months and the economy powering ahead.

CTP is starting 2019 with the announcement of ambitious development plans in three of its markets, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Hungary.

The Polish commercial real estate market is in the best shape it has ever been, posting a record-high investment volume that exceeded €7 billion in 2018. Office and industrial sectors, in particular, are setting new highs with last year’s trading volumes at nearly €2.6 billion and nearly €1.9 billion, respectively.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €150 million to Warehouses De Pauw (WDP) to finance the construction of 43 warehouses, all located in Romania’s convergence regions. The new logistics facilities will be rented long-term, with a focus on establishing new logistics or light industrial operations. This will promote employment generation and the EU's supply chain security, resulting in particular from the rapidly growing e-commerce business platforms.

Belgian developer WDP has signed a €45 million deal for the development and lease of 77,000 sqm of logistics warehouse space for the Romanian arm of French retailer Auchan.

KKCG Real Estate has bought five industrial BTS projects with 54,500 sqm of GLA in Poland. The transaction value was approx. €41 million. KKCG Real Estate is part of KKCG Group belonging to Czech investor Karel Komarek. AXI IMMO’s Investment department has advised buyer in the transaction.

In the third quarter of 2018, the Polish warehouse market was bolstered by 683,400 sqm of new supply. At the end of September, storage space in Poland exceeded 15 million sqm, which means that in the last 5 years the total surface volume has doubled. Almost 2 million sqm remains under construction, of which more than 25% in Central Poland.

According to Cresa’s latest report, the vacancy rate on Poland warehouse market is at a record low of 4.3% at the end Q3 2018 (down by 0.9 pp compared to September 2017). With new supply continually on the rise, Poland’s warehouse and industrial stock has already surpassed the 15 million sqm mark.

The Polish industrial market set three records in H1 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The leasing volume hit 2,100,000 sqm – the highest in the first six months of a year, the vacancy rate fell to an all-time low of 4% (573,000 sqm) and the volume of warehouse space under construction set a new high of 2,250,000 sqm across 66 projects.

At the end of H1 2018, there was more than 2.13 million sqm of warehouse and industrial space under construction across Poland with Central Poland accounting for more than one-fourth of the development pipeline, according to Cresa. Despite the healthy supply, the vacancy rate will remain below 5% this year and is likely to edge down to approximately 4% next year on account of a base effect and the expected robust occupier demand.