Estimated vacancy for Poland’s major regional office markets stands at 13.5 percent

The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures summarizing the office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q3 2021. The data is sourced from advisory companies from the commercial real estate sector (BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Colliers, Cresa, Cushman&Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank, Savills) and includes information on existing modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.

At the end of Q3 2021, the total modern office stock in the eight major regional markets amounted to 5,955,000 sqm. The largest office markets in Poland (following Warsaw) were Kraków (1,604,500 sqm), Wrocław (1,242,600 sqm) and the Tri-City (923,500 sqm).

Between July and September 2021, 4 developments with a total office space of 19,300 sq m were completed. The largest developments delivered to the market during this period were Kolońska Park (7,900 sqm, Dzida-Jazgar) in Katowice and the second phase of Ocean Office Park A (5,200 sqm, Cavatina) in Kraków. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 15 buildings was delivered with office space of almost 146,000 sqm.

The vacancy rate estimated for the eight major regional markets stood at 13.5 percent at the end of September 2021, which gives 805,700 sqm of office space available immediately for lease. The vacancy rate increased by 0.1 pp compared to the previous quarter, and 1.6 pp in the corresponding period of the previous year. The largest vacancy rate was recorded in Łódź 16.8 percent, while the lowest was in Szczecin – 5.8 percent.

In the third quarter of 2021, demand for modern office space in eight regional markets reached 113,100 sqm. From the beginning of the year till the end of September the total demand for offices outside Warsaw amounted to almost 379,500 sqm. New leases accounted for the highest share in the structure of demand in Q3 2021 – 66 percent, renegotiations accounted for 26 percent and expansions only for 8 percent. More than half of the office area in Q3 were leased in the two biggest regional markets Kraków and Wrocław.

The largest transactions concluded between July and September 2021 were: the lease renegotiation by a confidential tenant from the banking sector in Olivia Star building in Gdańsk for 5,400 sqm, and two pre-let agreements in Kraków leased by Pepsico in Brain Park A for 5,300 sqm and by a confidential tenant from the manufacturing sector in MK29 building for 5,100 sqm.