It promises to be a fine year

In spite of the fact that Q1 on the Polish commercial real estate market finished with a total transaction volume lower than in the same period of 2014, the prospects for the entire year are optimistic. Investors are increasingly being tempted by the office buildings offered for sale on regional markets and it looks that their share in this year’s volume could grow considerably. A growth trend is also expected when it comes to portfolio purchases.

In Q1 2015 investors bought commercial properties at a total value of EUR 438 mln in Poland. However, taking into consideration negotiations that are currently in progress, a considerable increase in the transaction volume is forecast for the next few quarters of this year. Investors are still interested in individual prime properties with values above EUR 100 mln. Last year such transactions constituted app. 41 pct of the total investment volume on the Polish market. It is estimated that in 2015, due to the limited supply of such projects, the share of high volume transactions will be lower than the previous year. This is confirmed by the first quarter, when purchases of smaller scale projects dominated the market – the average price of assets sold was around EUR 37 mln.

It is expected that there will be a growth trend in terms of portfolio transactions in Poland and on other European markets. Investors are inclined to invest more capital due to the low costs of financing and the possibility of diversifying the risk and sources of revenue.

An analysis of the first three months in terms of the share of transactions in individual sectors (offices, retail and warehouses) shows that acquisitions of retail properties accounted for the largest share of the investment market – 35 pct of the quarterly volume, while office transactions made up 31 pct of the volume and warehouses 34 pct. The largest contracts included the sale of the Sarni Stok shopping centre in Bielsko-Biała to Union Investment as well as the purchase of the warehouse portfolio of CA Immo for P3 and TPG.

In the first quarter, investment on the Warsaw real estate market came to over EUR 43 mln, almost EUR 35 mln of which was in the office segment. On the regional markets office transactions were concluded with a total value of EUR 101 mln. The largest of these was the sale of the Green Horizon office complex in Łódź, which was built by Skanska, to a fund managed by Griffin Real Estate for app. EUR 65 mln.