It's been a good, strong start to 2022 in Poland's office market, which offers hope that a long-awaited boom in demand is coming after a market slump. Companies have adapted to the new working conditions, and due to the easing of restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, they have launched a campaign to encourage employees back into offices. On the other hand, Warsaw and the eight largest regional markets, i.e., Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Lublin, may face a slowdown in new supply in the coming months. AXI IMMO looks at the current trends after Q1 2022 in the office market and analyses what will influence its development in the following months of the year.

New office supply in regional cities in Poland hit a record high of 243,500 sqm in Q1 2022, representing an uplift of 5% on the previous peak in Q4 2019, reveals Savills. More new office space was delivered in the first three months of this year alone than in the whole of 2021.

The Prague office market in Q1 2022 experienced a further increase in vacancy, across the entire city. However, gross take-up recorded a year-on-year increase of 44% and thus returned to pre-pandemic levels. The increase in prices throughout the city is still felt especially in construction projects, mainly due to rising costs for materials and construction work, reports the Czech branch of Colliers in their regular survey.

According to the latest, fourth edition of a survey conducted by Zymetria (an analytical and research company) on behalf of Skanska's commercial development business unit, after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, 9 out of 10 Polish office employees believe that the traditional office is irreplaceable. Today, more than half of Poles work in a hybrid model – this translates to an almost double increase compared to May 2021. In addition, the hybrid is also the most preferred way of working – it is favoured by 70% of the respondents.

Hungarian lender OTP Bank's new 84,000 sqm complex, built by Market Zrt. and called M12. It is 7 stories high, with a 3-level underground garage. 

Equilibrium 2, the second phase of the Equilibrium project developed by Skanska in northern Bucharest, has obtained the preliminary Net Zero Carbon Buildings certification, granted by the Romania Green Building Council (RoGBC).

The demand for office space in Prague increased by 29% quarter-on-quarter for the first quarter of 2021 and by 44% year-on-year. Although the largest transactions of the quarter were lease renegotiations – including Seznam.cz (14,800 sqm) in Palác Křižík in Prague 5 or MSD Czech Republic (6,800 sqm) in Riverview in Prague 5 – the share of newly leased space increased to 58%. The increase in newly leased and pre-leased space indicates confidence and healthy growth of the Prague office market. Despite the fact that leasing activity posted record numbers, the vacancy rate rose by 60 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 8.4%. JLL recorded an increase in vacancy rates in almost all Prague districts, as announced in the last report.

Unlike logistics and retail assets, office buildings received less damage from the war in Ukraine, but it is still impossible to calculate the exact number of losses or destroyed office space. Iryna Nastych summarised the situation in an article prepared by the Ukrainian Real Estate Club for Property Forum.

As the pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted, large occupiers have returned to the office, most of them in a hybrid setup, while the office lease periods have fallen from 5 to 3 years, according to an analysis of real estate consultancy Crosspoint Real Estate. 

Slovak developer Corwin has announced that its office projects in Bratislava and Ljubljana will soon join the list of LEED Zero Carbon certified carbon neutral buildings of which there are only 8 in existence at the moment.