Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures summarizing office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q4 2021. The data is sourced from advisory companies from the commercial real estate sector (BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Colliers, Cushman&Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank, Newmark, Savills) and includes information on existing modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.
At the end of Q4 2021, the total modern office stock in the eight major regional markets amounted to 6,038,800 sqm. The largest office markets in Poland (following Warsaw) were Kraków (1,617,600 sqm), Wrocław (1,253,100 sqm) and the Tri-City (963,300 sqm).
In 2021, 226,300 sqm of office space was completed, mostly in Tri-City (73,200 sqm), Kraków (60,700 sqm) and Poznań (37,500 sqm). In Q4 2021 there were seven projects delivered to the market offering more than 79,000 sqm, with the largest one being 3T Office Park (38,200 sqm) developed by 3T Office Park in Gdynia.
At the end of Q4 2021 in the eight major regional markets, 853,650 sqm remained vacant, resulting in a vacancy rate of 14.1 percent (increase by 0.6 pp q./q. and increase by 1.4 pp compared to the end of 2020). The highest vacancy rate was recorded in Wrocław – 16.7 percent, while the lowest was in Szczecin – 5.3 percent.
The total volume of leasing activity in 2021 amounted to 594,500 sqm, which is 2.1 percent more than last year. However, in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone the volume was 63 percent up y-o-y. Since January 2021 the largest volume of space was leased in Kraków (156,000 sqm) and Wrocław (135,400 sqm).
In the annual take-up, the highest share in transaction volume was attributed to new deals: 49 percent (including pre-lets transactions and owner-occupier deals). Renewals of current lease agreements attributed to 43 percent while expansions to 8 percent. In Q4 2021 alone, renewals accounted for the largest share – 48 percent, whereas new agreements (including prelist and owner-occupier deals) and expansions accounted for 41 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
The largest transactions executed in 2021 include lease renegotiation by a confidential tenant from the IT sector in Green Horizon in Łódź for 24,100 sqm, lease renewal and expansion by Rockwell Automation in A4 Business Park in Katowice for 19,500 sqm, lease renewal by a confidential tenant from the financial sector in Business Garden Poznań for 17,400 sqm, another lease renewal by a confidential tenant from the financial sector in Kapelanka 42a in Kraków for 15,600 sqm, the renegotiation of 12,800 sqm in the Kazimierz Office Center building in Kraków by a confidential tenant from the business services sector and a pre-let transaction by 3M Service Center EMEA in MidPoint71 in Wrocław (12,300 sqm).
