Utmost cautiousness, falling transaction volumes, and waiting for the office sector to finally catch its breath and the large retail schemes to redefine their strategies contrast with considerable investor interest in specific retail formats, dynamic growth of the logistics sector, and strong entry of European players onto the domestic residential rental market. This is what—according to a latest report, Poland’s commercial property investment market looked like in the second quarter of the year.
As far as the investment market is concerned, this current year is distinctively peculiar. It is difficult to compare it to last year when coronavirus struck, yet, in particular in the first few months, it was still possible to complete the transactions initiated prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. And it is still more difficult to find a common denominator for comparisons with the unrivalled 2019. When looking at what is shaping the reality of property investors today, it would be prudent to do it from an entirely new point of view. For the recovering market will be exercising caution and making more calculated investment decisions, on top of which there will be more scope for strategy revisions and increases in terms of results recorded, yet with different figures achieved for different types of products.
Mateusz Skubiszewski, Head of Capital Markets, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland
Despite the fact that that changes on the office market are inevitable, the desire to return to normality, which includes returning to work at the office, has been growing stronger month to month. And this applies to both the hybrid model and working from the office full time. We anticipate for this trend to intensify as more and more people are getting vaccinated, thus enabling us to better control the COVID-19 epidemic.
Małgorzata Fibakiewicz, Head of Business Intelligence Hub, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland
Despite the fact that the domestic institutional rental market is only taking its first tentative steps, the interest displayed by experienced and active European investors in the PRS indicates that they can see a lot of potential in Poland and are considering long-term commitment.
Anna Baran, Associate Director, Capital Markets, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland