The Polish real estate market registered €1.7 bn total investment volume in Q1 2022 – the third best opening to a year since 2016.
However, research from Avison Young states that stunningly, just three ‘extraordinary’ deals accounted for three quarters of the total: the office acquisition of The Warsaw Hub by Google and two sales of 50% of EPP’s retail portfolio via the establishment of two joint ventures.
Said Paulina Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczynska, research and data manager: ‘Thus, the retail and office sectors have the dominant share in the total investment volume structure, reaching 44%. This is rather outstanding result after the strong domination of industrial sector, which is mainly caused by lack of sizable industrial product on the market.’
Report highlights
Retail parks and convenience schemes remain the most attractive retail assets among investors in Poland. Q1 2022 saw 9 retail transactions, of which 4 were due to retail parks and convenience centres, confirming the stable position of retail parks and convenience retail properties on the Polish investment market.
Among sold retail parks there were two prime properties transacted to the market newcomers: Park Handlowy Mlyn in Wroclaw sold to Lords LB and Power Park Opole transacted to Leoff Group.
Retail investment volume at the beginning of 2022 broke records. The total transacted volume stood at €728 mln, which amounts to 73% of total retail investment volume in 2021. The 44% share of retail in total investment volume recorded in Q1 2022 is merited to the sale of 50% of EPP portfolios to form two joint ventures: Horse JV and Community Properties JV.
Offices
The office investment market started the year with the most impressive core transactions. While in 2021 number of value add transactions exceeded core assets deals, Q1 2022 saw the acquisition of several prime office buildings.
Lighting up Q1, The Warsaw Hub was sold by Ghelamco to Google, being the largest single office transaction ever recorded in Poland. This transaction volume represents 35% of total investment volume in the quarter. Wroclaw’s landmark – Sky Tower was acquired by Adventum Group from Develia. Avison Young represented the seller in the transaction of over €82 m.
Industrial
Warehouses were the undisputed leader of investment market in the recent years. In 2021 industrial sector took up record high share of investment volume in history, reaching 53%. Although Q1 2022 was rather modest in terms of new transactions regarding warehouse properties, forecasts for the sector are more than positive. ‘The decrease of investment volume was the result of the lack of product rather than reduced investors’ interest,’ explained Brzeszkiewicz-Kuczynska.
