Coffee with Craig Show – daily CRE news covering the CEE region, Tuesday, July 5 with Winston Norman, Editor and Chief of EuropaProperty.com.
EBRD’s investment in green bonds passes €1 billion
With its latest investment of €65 million in a green-covered bond from PKO Bank Hipoteczny (PKO BH), the EBRD has passed a major milestone in green finance, having put more than €1 billion directly into pioneering green bonds since 2017.
Proceeds from PKO BH’s green-covered bonds will be used to finance low-carbon residential buildings.
This latest investment is in the first euro-denominated green-covered bond from Poland. It follows a PLN 50 million EBRD investment in a PLN 250 million green-covered bond issued by PKO BH in 2019 which was the first such bond from a major Polish financial institution. This latest green-covered bond saw PKO BH return to the market, this time issuing in international markets in a challenging post-pandemic environment, and with a larger €500 million offering, further diversifying its investor base. It opens the door for other Polish issuers of green-covered bonds to follow suit.
“Increasing access to green finance in the countries where we work requires the EBRD to help more of our clients come to market and more local and international investors to invest in their green bonds,” explained Harry Boyd-Carpenter, the EBRD’s Managing Director for Climate Strategy and Delivery. “Doing so can help educate issuers and investors on what makes for a green investment and ultimately to green the whole financial system.”
Tricity office stock surpasses 1 million sqm
Tricity, comprising Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot, is the third-largest regional office market in Poland. Its total office stock has just surpassed the one million sqm mark, Savills, which has recently opened its office in the Pomerania region. Tricity also saw a rebound in leasing activity in Q1 2022, with office take-up up by almost a half since the end of last year.
According to Savills latest report “Spotlight: Office Market in Tricity”, 373,500 sqm of new office space was delivered onto the Tricity market in the last five years. With over 755,000 sqm of office space, Gdansk retains the top spot as the region’s largest city, accounting for more than three-quarters of Tricity’s total stock. It is followed by Gdynia, with over 200,000 sqm, and Sopot, which contains just over 35,000 sqm.
“At the end of the first quarter, Pomerania’s development pipeline comprised ten office projects with a total area of around 87,600 sqm, over half of which was underway in Gdansk,” comments Piotr Skuza, Associate Director, Regional Manager, Savills Gdansk.
“Tricity has the fourth-largest concentration of business services centres in Poland. What’s more, companies present in Tricity are perfectly aware that to recruit and retain the top talent they need to provide a modern office environment,” says Marcin Grzegory, Deputy Director, Invest in Pomerania.
Czech retail park space records its highest growth in five years
According to the latest research from Cushman & Wakefield, in 2021 there was an increase of over 65,000 sqm in retail park space in the Czech Republic, which now has more than 1,100,000 sqm of retail park space overall. This was the biggest growth in five years.
Retail parks now tend to be viewed as the winners of the coronavirus crisis – and their popularity and success have endured. They continue to reap the dividends of shopper interest, low vacancy rates driven by tenant expansion and lengthy leases, and a surge of interest among investors. While higher costs are now slowing the construction of new retail parks, this will only boost demand for space in them and likely push up rents as well.
Last year, more than 65,000 sqm of retail park space was completed across 14 projects (whether new builds, refurbishments, or expansions) in the Czech Republic.
Jan Čížek, Head of Retail Warehousing team, Cushman & Wakefield, commented: “At the moment, most construction is concentrated in smaller towns with a population of up to 40,000. These are often smaller projects of no more than 10,000 sqm.”
Karimpol opens first part of Bratislava retail project
Austrian developer Karimpol Group has finished the first stage of the Squarebizz Bory project in Bratislava, which comprises eco-friendly retail storage, service and showroom space within an area of 15,000 sqm. The developer also announced the first tenants who have signed contracts already and the launching of the second phase.
The first phase of the Squarebizz Bory project consists of 3 halls (A, B and E), which cumulatively offer 15,000 sqm of state-of-the-art retail, storage, service and showroom premises with up to 2,000 sqm of office space in the three halls. Completion of the second phase with another 15,000 sqm in halls C, D, F and G is scheduled for next spring and several tenants have already pre-committed the space, announced the developer.
“In addition to the green roofs, we have not forgotten about the greenery within the complex, where 194 deciduous trees, 153 deciduous shrubs and 10,650 sqm of the lawn will be planted throughout the Squarebizz Bory project after its full completion,” adds Mario Klas, Head of Property Management at Karimpol Slovakia.
