According to a recently published survey, 90 percent of landlords in the retail sector in Poland experience the negative impact of the crisis on their businesses. As no personal meetings are possible, many negotiation processes are postponed. Fortunately, big transactions can keep going, explained Bartłomiej Zagrodnik MRICS, Managing Partner and CEO of Walter Herz.

Dariusz Forysiak, Director of Investment Services at Colliers International also stressed the difficult situation of the retail sector, by contrast with the logistics or even the office market. Due to the governmental intervention, retail tenants are protected by the law which may cause troubles in the ongoing negotiation processes.

The main difficulty of the coronavirus crisis is the uncertainty, even though the market will gradually start to go back to a new normal in the next months, argued Monika Dębska-Pastakia FRICS, Partner and Chairman of the Board at Knight Frank. Due to this uncertainty, no lease negotiations are possible and a relevant number of deals cannot proceed. She also pointed out the imbalances of both the landlord and the tenant side. While landlords cannot terminate a lease agreement despite the lack of rent payments, some tenants may not survive the lockdown.

Regarding the office market, companies will need to reorganize their working structure as well as the work environment. Bigger floors, new hygienic standards, flexibility as well as the fast adoption of new technologies will be important to survive in the future, explained Hubert Abt, CEO and Principal at New Work Offices. Co-working may suffer a lot, approximately only 50 percent of the operators will survive the current crisis, he forecasted.

Technology plays a key role in the current situation, emphasized Maciej Markowski, CEO & Co-Founder, spaceOS. To keep the flow of communication going and to support remote work, it is necessary to adopt flexible mechanisms. Times of emergency speed up changes that must be embraced fast by the real estate industry.