Investment in offices outside Warsaw amounted to €220 mln in the first six months of 2014 and could hit a record €400 mln by the end of the year, says JLL.
Investment in offices outside Warsaw amounted to €220 mln in the first six months of 2014 and could hit a record €400 mln by the end of the year, says JLL.
The largest office transaction outside Warsaw in H1 was the sale of office properties from the portfolio of Arka BZ WBK Property Market Fund, including Quattro Forum in Wroc³aw, Winogrady Business Center in Poznañ, Red Tower in Lodz and Alfa Plaza in Gdañsk to Octava Fizan.
The second-largest transaction this year - and the largest single transaction - was the sale of Lubicz Office Centre by Peakside to Griffin Group, JLL said. Another significant transaction was the sale of Wroclaw office building Green Day to GLL by Skanska.
The move outside Warsaw stems from the fact that it has become increasingly expensive and from a lack of product following a number of flagship transactions, said Tomasz Puch, head of office and industrial capital markets at JLL.
When Warsaw is taken out of the equation, the most active office markets in Poland are Wroclaw and Kraków, where investors are targeting prime properties.
‘The growing volume of office investment transactions outside Warsaw is also facilitated by the changing strategies of several local developers,’ Puch said. ‘These companies are more open to new solutions, e.g. joint ventures or sharing a part of the developer’s profit. Some owners are ready to renegotiate and extend lease agreements in order to make their projects more attractive and valuable.’
Based on deals currently in the pipeline, JLL expects that the total office investment volume outside Warsaw may hit €400 mln by the end of 2014, beating the €156 mln figure in 2013 and the record €346 mln achieved in pre-crisis 2006.
Investor activity is expected to continue in Q1 2015, with significant transactions expected in Wroclaw or in the Tri-City region (Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot), Puch noted.
