Sixteen office buildings have been completed in Warsaw in the first half of 2016, totalling 350,000 sqm. 100,000 sqm is scheduled for completion in H2 2016, which will bring the annual supply to a new record high of 450,000 sqm. Cushman & Wakefield has published its Property Times report on the Warsaw office market for H1 2016.

pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided an investment facility of €34 million to IMMOFINANZ. The proceeds will be utilized for the refinancing of the Nimbus office building in Warsaw. The transaction closed in July 2016. 

Norway-based Libertech Group has signed a lease on more than 700 sqm of office space in Warsaw Spire. The company intends to set up its headquarters for the CEE region in Poland. Cushman & Wakefield has advised the tenant in the lease negotiations. It will also coordinate and oversee the office fit-out.

Deutsche Hypothekenbank is acting as the sole lender to a real estate company, which is managed on behalf of four independent investors by Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH, for the purchase of the Prime Corporate Center office building in Warsaw. The financing volume amounts to € 40.5 million. In addition to this long-term investment financing, Deutsche Hypo is also providing a short-term bridging loan to cover the VAT element in the amount of € 14.2 million.

Prologis has signed a lease agreement with Grupa Allegro, the largest e-commerce platform in Poland, for 21,950 square metres at Prologis Park Błonie. The transaction involves 13,100 square metres of space that has been leased now and an additional 8,850 square metres that will be leased in 2017.

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (Warburg-HIH Invest) has finalised the Sales & Purchase Agreement for the office property Prime Corporate Center in the city centre of Warsaw. The transaction, which took the form of an asset deal, was carried out as a club deal for four separate accounts of German institutional investors. The property has been sold by the Warsaw-based developer Golub GetHouse. The buyer was represented in this transaction by Cushman & Wakefield.

Invesco Real Estate (IRE) has announced the sale of Zaulek Piekna office building on behalf of one of its separate account clients in Germany to GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH.

The total modern office stock in Warsaw reached 4.75 million sqm at the end of Q1 2016. As much as ca. 75% of this space is located in the central Core and Fringe zones, as well as Upper South and South West. Cushman & Wakefield has published the sixth edition of their Skyline Tracker report, outlining developers’ activity in the Warsaw office market.

Acting in its capacity as advisor for a German depositary bank, who is currently administrating the German Special-AIF UBS (D) Sector 3 Real Estate Europe, UBS Real Estate GmbH has sold the Nova Praga office building in Warsaw to Mazovia Capital. Cushman & Wakefield and Magnusson Law represented the vendor in the transaction. The building will now be known as Mazovia Plaza.

According to the latest report by Cushman & Wakefield Q1 2016 saw a rapid growth in the supply of office space in Warsaw, which more than doubled the results for the same period in 2015. Due to the record-breaking levels of supply vacancy rates have increased by 1.9 pps to 14.1%. Although statistics show a fall in net absorption, this is probably a temporary decrease in the light of last year’s exceptionally high growth. Cushman & Wakefield expects the office market to continue its growth in the remaining months of 2016, with pipeline supply estimated at 330,000 sq m.