The Polish Real Estate Guide 2019
Our guide provides a broad view of the real estate market and the current investment climate in Poland, as well as legal and tax information to help you make informed business decisions. The guide is used as a platform on which experts from the EY Real Estate Advisory Group share their expertise.
We hope that the information contained in the guide will prove to be a useful reference tool on the state of Poland’s real estate market.
Download: The Polish Real Estate Guide 2019
Trends on Poland’s real estate market
The new trends on the real estate market stem from changes occurring in the existing models of working and user expectations.
According to the EY report, office supply in Warsaw and the 6 largest agglomerations at the end of 2018 stood at 10.4m m2.
Changes occurring on the job market affect the way office space is perceived. Landlords are forced to become more flexible in their operational approach towards tenants. Increasingly often tenants expect shorter leases and inclusion of an option to modify the size of the leased space. The reality now is that coworking operators own or lease space in modern and attractively located A class office buildings. Demand for office space from this particular sector has increased considerably over the past few years. At the moment, there are more than 300 coworking schemes operating on Poland’s market.
Demand in regional cities such as Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk — and nowadays also on the smaller markets (Toruń, Częstochowa and Rzeszów) — is generated mainly from the modern business services sector (currently there are 1,230 centres that employ in excess of 280,000 staff across Poland).
More than just online retail
Retail supply in 2018 increased to 14.3m m2. More than 30 new brands entered Poland. The retail sector is still adapting to the significant changes in legislation (introduction of the Sunday trade ban), the dynamic development of new technologies and the changing consumer expectations. eCcommerce growth, modernizations and expansions, new multi-function schemes and cooperation between tenants and landlords are only some of the trends currently prevailing on the market.
New locations on Poland’s logistics map — including cities
For many years now Poland has been experiencing dynamic growth in terms of the number of logistics centres. This results from the extremely positive economic indicators, optimistic forecasts and the gradual improvements in the country’s transport infrastructure. Logistics and eCommerce businesses are the sector’s most active tenants.
Consumers expect quick deliveries, which means warehousing facilities have to be located within city boundaries (the so-called “last mile delivery”). The build-to-own (BTO) format is also becoming increasingly popular, particularly amongst tenants wishing to invest in advanced and expensive systems to optimize their costs.
Conferences and growing visitor numbers drive the hotel market
The dynamic growth of Poland’s hotel market is mainly driven by the economic growth, increasing attractiveness as a tourist destination, including medical tourism, and the increasing number of international conferences held in the country. Also the growing number of shared service centres is another contributing factor.
Residential market attractive for investors despite growing challenges
The number of new flats sold on the 6 largest markets dropped by nearly 11%. Nonetheless, the continued high demand, increasing land prices and construction costs led further price increases. Interestingly, this particular market also saw the arrival of the new product representative of the sharing economy, i.e. co-living schemes.
Poland remains attractive for investors
Poland’s stable macroeconomic situation and high availability of investment products compared to other CEE countries were reflected in the volume of transactions concluded on the real estate market which, by the end of 2018, reached a historically high level of EUR 7.2bn.
