Podsumowanie roku

2018 set to be a record-breaking year for warehouses

24 stycznia 2018

The warehouse market is flourishing, which is clearly supported by growth rates higher than those recorded by the office and retail sectors. Positive macroeconomic forecasts indicate that 2018 will be another year running for the sector to come out considerably ahead.

The logistics and warehouse industry in Poland is performing extremely well, and there is nothing to suggest that 2018 should be different. On a yearly basis, the supply of new warehouse space may grow by several percent, yet the vacancy rate remains at a low level

Katarzyna Pyś-Fabiańczyk, Head of Industrial & Logistics Department, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland

Over the past 12 months, the agency recorded a 16% increase in the total volume of leased space. The 27 transactions finalized by consultants at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland resulted in 220 000 sqm finding new tenants, where, importantly, more than 23% of the transactions completed related to the online retail industry.

It is indeed due to the dynamic growth of the e-commerce sector, among other factors, that new schemes do not have to wait for tenants for too long a time. Furthermore, the growing importance of e-commerce translated into increasing popularity of built-to-suit projects. As regards the e-commerce puzzle, tenants and developers agree in stating that schemes located in the close vicinity, and sometimes even within the boundaries of agglomerations and large urban centres, are its crucial element.

Gone are the days when online stores were able to lure customers with purely the goods offered and their attractive design. Katarzyna Pyś-Fabiańczyk stresses that nowadays customers pay considerable attention to the quality of the service, which is frequently affected by delivery times and efficiency as far as returns and exchanges are concerned. Every year, a true test for online stores comes at Christmas time when hundreds of thousands of orders have to be completed and delivered at the last minute. It has to be pointed out that growth of the e-commerce market in 2018 and over the coming years will not be exclusively reliant on large players. Small and medium-sized businesses investing in this particular channel will become increasingly proficient here.

Experts at the Industrial & Logistics Department, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland – as joined by 5 new consultants last year – stress that 2018 will additionally be the year of increasing interest shown in the domestic market by businesses from the Far East. The tremendously important role played by China in the global economy means that the New Silk Road concept and initiative – to develop transport corridors linking China and Europe – is winning new supporters month by month.

Many experts are of the opinion that Poland, thanks to its strategic location, could show itself as a guide for exporters from the Middle Kingdom as regards further expansion across the continent. It is a crucial initiative that should be considered from the commercial, economic and political point of view. The New Silk Road idea, drawing on trade traditions of yore and strongly promoted by the Chinese, brings attention to the numerous possible ways in which the two continents could be linked using new sea and air routes, while in the first place revealing the potential of the land route

Marcin Żuchniewicz, Associate Director, Industrial & Logistics Department, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland

Experts at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland predict further increase in importance of green building certification for newly-built warehouse schemes. A building’s green profile, lower energy consumption, higher daylight factor and replacing traditional lighting with LED lights represent some of the ways to increase a scheme’s competitiveness and lower its cost of operation and management.

Some of the restraints that might lead to the slowing down of the dynamic growth of the warehouse sector include availability of workforce, increasing pay expectations and gradual opening of Western markets to workers from the East.