The drop in footfall numbers in the majority of shopping centres combined with a drop in turnover, as well as ongoing talks between tenants and shopping centre owners have caused a slowdown or even temporary suspension of development plans of some retail chains, especially those in the fashion sector. JLL summarised conditions on Poland's retail market at the end of H1 2020.

Globalworth published a trading update summarising the key highlights of its operating performance during the first six months of the year, including some further updates as to the impact of the pandemic crisis on its operations.

Panattoni has completed the construction of a forklift assembly plant for KION Group, one of the largest providers of intralogistics solutions and warehouse technologies worldwide comprising brands like Linde, STILL and Dematic. The facility, offering more than 44,000 sqm in Kołbaskowo near Szczecin, has been delivered in compliance with the most stringent environmental protection guidelines.

According to Savills, commercial property investment activity hit €2.92 billion across Poland in H1 2020, up by almost 5% on the same period in 2019. Despite COVID-19 challenges, it was the second-best result in the first half of a year on record. Savills anticipates that the pandemic’s impact will be noticeable in H2 2020, but the investment volume is unlikely to fall by more than 20% compared to last year’s all-time high.

Colliers International represented the Deichmann Group in the renegotiation of a lease agreement for 13,000 sqm of modern warehouse space in Prologis Park Wrocław III and in expanding by an additional 7,000 sqm. 

The first half of 2020 saw a record high investment activity with €3.5 billion of investment transactions closed on the Polish market. Although this was a 30% higher result compared to the corresponding period of last year, achieving a full-year result similar to the record-breaking €7.8 billion volume of 2019 may be difficult, according to Avison Young.

BWI Group, a global automotive suspension parts design and manufacturing company, has moved into a unique passive building in Europe. The group's research and development centre will begin operations in Balice near Kraków, where advanced technologies will be developed to increase the functionality of shock absorbers. The developer, 7R, has prepared an energy self-sufficient facility for the company, using an advanced trigeneration system. The building will obtain a BREEAM Very Good certificate.

European Logistics Investment (ELI) together with its strategic partner Panattoni is to lease more warehouse space. At the facility Panattoni Park Ruda Śląska II almost 57,000 square meters will be delivered for use, of which nearly 45,000 square meters have been leased out to the tenants Dywidag and LATEX Opony Inc.

What will the Warsaw office market look like in the next 18 months? Experts of Savills have outlined two potential scenarios. Both scenarios foresee a short-term decrease in demand and rising vacancy rates, but with a different scale of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Polish capital’s office market. Both also forecast that the market will remain resilient in the long term.

There are only four construction projects with a unit value in excess of PLN 3 billion (€670 million), excl. VAT, currently underway in Poland. The combined value of these projects, commonly referred to as megaprojects, is almost PLN 17 billion (€3.8 billion), excl. VAT. This is not a lot, given the fact that projects worth a total of nearly PLN 300 billion (€67 billion) are in the pipeline.