The pandemic has spared no business, with its consequences most strongly felt by the retail sector, including tenants in shopping centres, retail parks and high streets. Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield examines the situation of retail tenants in its latest report “Is Confidence Returning to the Retail Market?”. 

The rampant growth in rents across the logistics sector continues amid a broader recovery in markets as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic begin to wane, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate research for Q3 2021.

Despite the ongoing disruption of the pandemic, investment volumes for the first three quarters of 2021, totalling €7.3 billion, are down just 10% year-on-year and ca. 20% lower than the same period of 2019.  Colliers estimates that 2021 year-end volumes will reach similar levels as in 2020 of between €10.0 and €11.0 billion.

The international consulting company Cushman & Wakefield has summed up the third quarter of 2021 for the commercial real estate market in the CEE region. The investment volume at the end of the third quarter of the year amounts to €6.7 billion and is nearly 13% lower than for the same period in 2020.

The Polish office space market situation at the end of Q3 2021 allows for an optimistic view of the sector in 2022.  Demand remaining at a similar level to last year and the expected higher absorption of available space are conducive to improving the sector’s performance in the coming months, says AXI IMMO.

For the second successive quarter, developers have attempted to establish equilibrium between units sold and new units coming onto the market. Rising inflation continues to drive buyers to developers’ offices, with sales for the first three quarters of 2021 exceeding 2020’s annual total, says JLL. 

The commercial real estate market, together with many other economic areas, after being impacted heavily by the Covid pandemic, is undergoing recovery. These positive indicators are also mirrored in the retail real estate sector. Recent figures indicate that retail parks and convenience centres are recovering strongly as are discount shops, while large shopping centres are reporting increasing footfall levels, optimistic economic outlook; these are the key highlights from Q3 of the year. The analysis of the retail real estate sector was prepared by experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate.

During Q3, the modern office space stock located outside of Warsaw grew by less than 20,000 sqm. Throughout this period, tenants have leased over 113,000 sqm of space, mainly through the signing of new contracts, or by contract renewals. Office employees have slowly been returning to the offices, tenants were waking-up to the new, hybrid reality and owners of office buildings and property managers began to deliberate more and more about rising utility costs. This is what the 3rd quarter snapshot mirrors in the regional office markets, as per the summary prepared by BNP Paribas Real Estate experts.

The sector is seeing a recovery following the reopening of the economy. However, a change in the structure of retail formats continues. Increased developer activity will translate into over half a million sqm of new supply by the end of the year.

The trade sector, greatly weakened by the pandemic, has gained a new investment niche. This year, the increased activity of investors, now mainly focused on the construction of retail parks and convenience centres, will result in the largest growth of these facilities in the history of the Polish market.