According to “Occupier Insight: Poland – Industrial and Economic Overview”, a report prepared by real estate advisory firm Cresa, occupier activity remained very robust in the first half of the year, with 3.4 million sqm transacted in January-June 2021, representing a 28% increase on the same period in 2020 and accounting for 62% of last year’s total take-up.
Poland’s total warehouse and industrial stock reached 21.9 million sqm at the end of the first half of 2021, having expanded by 11.4% year-on-year. New supply amounted to 1.2 million sqm, up by 15% on the same period last year and accounting for 60% of 2020’s total.
“At the end of June 2021, Poland’s development pipeline stood at more than 3.3 million sqm, which represented an all-time high for the Polish market and an increase of 79% year-on-year. The highest concentration of development activity was in Silesia (584,000 sqm) and Greater Poland (538,000 sqm). The fastest growing province was Lubuskie, where a total of around 388,000 sqm was under construction. Notably, the development pipeline was close to the leasing volume posted in the first half of the year,” says Tom Listowski, Partner, Head of Industrial & Warehouse Department for Central and Eastern Europe at Cresa.
Leasing activity maintained its upward trajectory with 3.4 million sqm transacted by the end of June 2021, up by 28% on the first half of 2020. The strongest leasing activity was in Greater Poland, where 672,000 sqm was leased, followed by Silesia with warehouse and industrial take-up at close to 627,000 sqm.
High net take-up pushed the overall vacancy rate for Poland down by 1.2 pp year-on-year to 5.8% at the end of the first half of 2021. The lowest vacancy rates were in Opolskie (0.5%) and Western Pomerania (1.4%), while the highest percentages of unoccupied space were in Świętokrzyskie (17.2%) and Silesia (8.8%).
Demand continued to come predominantly from e-commerce, 3PLs, courier and transport companies. The
largest transactions of the first half of 2021 included the construction of a 109,000 sqm BTS facility in Panattoni Park Poznań for DHL Supply Chain, a new lease for 82,300 sqm in P3 Poznań II made by Westwing, and the development of an 82,200 sqm BTS project in Gorzyczki by Panattoni for a confidential tenant from the e-commerce sector.
“Warehouse and industrial assets accounted for close to EUR 869 million of capital deployed in commercial real estate in the first half of 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, the volume of industrial transactions amounted to EUR 469 million, representing an over threefold increase year-on-year. The warehouse and industrial market has been the most in-demand sector for the last five quarters with its average share of the total commercial real estate investment volume at 43%. Most transactions were for single industrial parks. The largest deals included the acquisition of 4 logistics parks totalling 285,000 sqm by Ares Group from Panattoni, the acquisition of a portfolio of five logistics parks totalling 209,000 sqm by REINO Capital on behalf of the Grosvenor Group and the acquisition of a logistic center in Stryków, fully leased to Castorama with an area of 101,000 sqm, by Savills IM. Prime yields currently stand at 5,25% for multi-let, WAULT 5+ years projects, however for BTS assets let for 10+ years to blue chip covenant tenants yields stand around 4.5% with further compression expected due to significant interest in the sector from institutional investors,” adds Tom Listowski.
