Despite the turbulent global economy, in Poland, one can observe the high activity of the commercial real estate market - says the report, "MarketbeatPoland - Fall 2011" prepared by the international consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield. The report summarizes the first half of 2011, the real estate market of offices, sales area, industrial warehouse and hotels. The study finds that there is a good chance to maintain and strengthen its leading position in the native commercial market in Central and Eastern Europe.
In January-June period, Warsaw alone contracted the lease of more than 324 thousand square meters of office space. Demand in the capital once again proved to be a record, exceeding the average of the same period of the last five years by about 36 percent. The greatest interest among tenants and developers enjoyed Mokotów district, center edges and the periphery of Al. Jerozolimskie.
Almost 57.3 thousand sq m were commissioned. The supply is only 43 percent of the level achieved in the first half of 2010 and 33 percent in the same period of 2009. Despite the decrease in the amount of commissioned space, in the near future there will be no relaxation of the conditions that banks put in front of investors. Rapid increase in supply will prevent the return of financial market uncertainty, which will have the greatest impact on real estate market. Although it is already projected to improve the situation - by the end of 2011, the developers plan to deliver another 85 thousand sq m.
Due to the limited new supply with unflagging demand reported by the market, the vacancy rate has reached a very low average value (6.17 percent). Analysts predict a further decline in the index. They believe that this trend will increase the activity of developers. Additional driving force generating transactions will be the pre-let transactions, which now represent more than a quarter of all concluded contracts.
The greatest resources of office space are in Warsaw. Their number exceeds the total amount of resources in all major regional markets by 80 percent. Surfaces in Krakow, Wroclaw, Tri-City, Katowice, Poznan and Lodz count a total of over 1.9 million square meters to 3.5 million square meters in the capital. Projected increases in rents in the capital's best office space will increase the interest in regional markets, where now, about 250 thousand sq m is under construction. In Krakow itself, there is about 80 percent of all constructed surface, which is created on a speculative basis (without pre-lease contracts signed).
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