ARTICLES LABELLED WITH TAG regional cities

The regional office market in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, and Lublin) is adapting to evolving conditions. The high availability of office space (an average of 17.8%) prompts tenants to take up greater flexibility in lease negotiations, while developers are reducing their activity (120,000 sq m of new supply delivered in 2024). Despite challenges in gross take-up (710,000 sq m, -5% y/y), stabilisation is observed, with office building owners focusing on improving building standards and introducing flexible leasing models, says Axi Immo.

According to the latest report published by Newmark Polska, in 2024, leasing activity in Poland’s key regional city office markets (Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) showed stability, with annual take-up exceeding the average for the past five years. The strongest demand was recorded in Kraków, Wrocław and Tricity, which solidified their leading positions among regional cities. Additionally, lease renegotiations outnumbered relocations last year. While the overall vacancy rate edged up, developers remain cautious about starting new projects.

The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) has published figures summarizing office market in eight major regional markets in Poland (Kraków, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) for Q4 2024. The data is sourced from advisory companies in the commercial real estate sector. 

In the third quarter of 2024, Poland’s regional city office markets demonstrated stability, though elevated vacancy rates remained a significant challenge, hindering development activity. The combined office stock of the eight key regional cities reached 6.73 million sqm. With 1.82 million sqm of office space, Kraków continued to lead the way, ahead of Wrocław (1.37 million sqm) and Tricity (1.06 million sqm), says BNP Paribas Real Estate.

According to a report published by Newmark Polska, occupier activity on Poland’s largest regional city office markets (Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Poznań, Łódź, Lublin, Szczecin) remains stable, but tenants are increasingly focusing on workspace efficiency and looking for better quality offices. Almost 70% of the total leasing activity across the regions is concentrated in Kraków, Tricity and Wrocław. With office availability in existing buildings in regions remaining high and estimated at nearly 1.2 million sqm, developer activity remains limited.

At the end of the second quarter of 2024, more than 40% of offices in the oldest office buildings in Poland’s regional cities remained vacant, with their office markets experiencing stable vacancy rates and subdued development activity, reveals BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland in its latest report.

Lavinia Ioniță Rasmussen, Partner at NNDKP’s Real Estate practice, spoke with Property Forum about the acceleration of commercial and residential development in regional cities and the potential of the local market to offer higher returns for property investors compared to other countries in the region.

Only 31,000 sqm of new supply was delivered through two projects during the three months to March 2024, bringing the combined office stock of Poland’s eight largest regional cities to 6.7 million sqm at the end of the first quarter, say BNP Paribas Real Estate experts. The new completions were Echo Investment’s Brain Park C (13,000 sqm) in Kraków, which is the second largest office market in Poland after Warsaw, and Cavatina Holding’s Quorum Office Park A (18,000 sqm) in Wrocław – the third biggest.

According to the latest report published by Newmark Polska, during the first three months of 2024, Poland’s regional city office markets experienced moderate occupier demand, with regearing accounting for most of total take-up. In addition, while the overall regional vacancy rate rose to nearly 18%, development activity was more muted and focused on three cities: Katowice, Poznań and Wrocław, which contain 75% of the office stock under construction.

In 2023, on Poland’s largest eight regional office markets, developers delivered 280,000 sqm (-31% y/y). It’s bringing the sector’s total stock to 6.68 million sqm (+4% y/y). The new supply slightly increased the vacancy rate, stabilizing around 17.5% (+2.2 pp. y/y) at the end of December 2023. The largest concentration of tenant activity was observed in the largest regional office markets, i.e., Kraków, Wrocław, and the Tricity (about 70% of gross demand), where, in total, companies leased about 520,000 sqm out of 750,000 sqm of all signed contracts in 2023, says Axi Immo.