Property Forum’s series of virtual events, organised in partnership with the RICS, continues with online panel discussions focused on the leasing issues that arise during the COVID-19 lockdown. This week's remaining two events, focused on the Polish and Romanian property markets, will bring together landlords, tenants, legal advisors and other industry experts to shed light on the issues currently on the mind of market participants and to help provide an overview of the potential immediate and long-term implications of the coronavirus crisis. Our diverse group of panellists will answer all the burning questions that may arise in this unprecedented situation.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a relatively benign effect on the Q1 2020 Warsaw office market figures, according to the latest Savills research. However, tenants already started to optimize costs which soon may increase the number of lease renewals and subleases. Companies will look for more flexible lease terms and cost-effective locations.

Panattoni is building the first modern multi-tenant distribution centre in the Warmia and Mazury region. Panattoni Park Olsztyn, featuring in excess of 36,000 sqm, will be delivered in the Stawiguda commune, in the immediate vicinity of the Olsztyn Południe junction, connecting S51 with S16, approx. 20 km from the S7 route. The project will be implemented in several stages and the first tenants will able to move to in as early as August this year. One of the factors which made the launch of the project possible was the lease by A&E Clothing, an American company specialising in textile recycling, which will take up in excess of 7,500 sqm of office and production space. The deal was negotiated on behalf of the customer by Axi Immo.

During the first three months of 2020, demand on the Warsaw office market was nearly 139,000 sqm, which almost matched the Q1 performance of last year. The vacancy rate fell by 0.3 pps, while 770,000 sqm is under construction. JLL summarised the Warsaw office market in Q1 2020.

COVID-19 restrictions which were introduced by the Polish government in March and extended until at least 19 April are affecting each sector of the economy. Cushman & Wakefield experts, including Katarzyna Lipka-Nawrocka, Jan Szulborski, Małgorzata Dziubińska, and Adrian Semaan, talk about how these restrictions are reshaping the retail, office and warehouse sectors.

Warehouse developer 7R is to build a specialized facility for Cefea – a company dedicated to the manufacturing, distribution and import of pharmaceutical products. The tenant will move into 7R City Flex Warsaw Airport I in July of this year.

The total value of investment transactions in the Polish real estate market for the first quarter was nearly €1.8 billion, which is the second-highest result on record for the first three months of the year. JLL analyses the investment transactions concluded in Q1 2020 in Poland’s commercial real estate sector.

The Polish Commercial Real Estate Chamber (PINK) is hereby publishing figures on the office market in Warsaw for Q1 2020. The data is sourced from advisory companies from the commercial real estate sector (BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Colliers International, Cresa, Cushman&Wakefield, JLL, Knight Frank, Savills) and includes information on modern office stock, new completions, take-up volumes and vacancy rates.

Hartwig Gdynia has leased 5,200 sqm of warehouse and office space in the Pomeranian Logistics Centre. The tenant was represented during negotiations by Cresa.

Singapore-based alternative asset manager Elite Partners Capital has announced the first close of its pure-play Elite Logistics Fund. Launched in January 2020, Elite Logistics Fund, which targets investment opportunities in the EU and UK logistics sectors, now holds more than 372,000 sqm of logistics assets in Poland and the UK.