Last year, IVG fund (the owner of 16 properties in Poland) purchased three office towers in the centre of Warsaw, with their total value reaching approximately 86 million euros. The acquisitions included two refurbished Neo-Renaissance tenement houses dating back to the 19th century – Le Palais (Próżna Street), and Royal Trakt Offices (Ujazdowskie Avenue) erected in 1876 – as well as Feniks Office Building (Żelazna Street) in the Central Business District. In total, the IVG group has invested about one trillion euros in real estate in Europe, having sold assets worth 800 million euros.
We focus mainly on the capital city which is, and is going to be, the major target of investment in the office sector, especially for those customers of real estate companies who look for stability and safety, such as superannuation funds or insurance companies which are eager to invest through our agency, says Maciej Zajdel, the president of IVG Poland. Warsaw is attractive because it meets all the criteria of the so-called ‘core market’, being one of the most free-flowing European markets (after London, Paris, and German markets), with its relatively easy access to capital and credits.
In IVG’s opinion, the lessees would look primarily for two types of office space: refurbished historic buildings in the prestigious areas of the city, and other class A office buildings around the city centre. Based on this assumption, the company has developed its policy which in 2013 resulted in leasing by IVG over 22 thousand square metres, under new contracts with more than 80 companies. In the estate owned by IVG, with 250 lessees, the vacancy rate is less than 5 percent. What is also significant, IVG renovated the existing buildings: R34, Metron and Jerozolimskie Offices, which led to the conclusion of new lease agreements.
In 2014, IVG is planning a further expansion in Poland. In the first half of the year, the company is willing to make new acquisitions, while in the other half it is going to start creating a new fund (investing mainly in the capital), which would be as big as, or slightly bigger than, the Warsaw fund. Other projects for this year include obtaining the environmental certification for three IVG’s investments.