E-commerce giants boosting Poland's industrial market – JLL report

The take-up of space leased in Poland’s industrial market recorded its best ever figures in 2017, with a total of 3.9 million square metres, according to JLL, a leading professional services firm specialising in real estate management.

Total space leased under new agreements and expansions in 2017 was nearly 1 million square metres more than in 2016. The gross take-up rises to more than 3.9 million square metres once lease renewals are added. “Retailers and logistics operators continued to drive the market, together accounting for more than 65% of net take-up in 2017, including some excellent e-commerce transactions featuring the likes of Amazon and Zalando. A strong third position was retained by the light manufacturing sector contributing 20% of net take-up,” said Tomasz Olszewski, head of industrial central and eastern Europe at JLL.

Central Poland was the regional hotspot in 2017 due to its favourable location, developed modern infrastructure and attractive rents. Nearly 30% of total net take-up was attributable to that region alone, driven mainly by retailers. Attention has also turned to Poland's emerging regions, such as Lubusz, which together saw deals for 13% of total new demand due to tightening labour market conditions.

The five markets with the highest growth results were Warsaw Suburbs, Upper Silesia, Szczecin, Central Poland and Poznań, which together accounted for almost 75% of newly developed space. The largest projects were built for representatives from the e-commerce sector and giants such as Amazon, who are increasing their presence in emerging markets and second-tier cities across the globe.

“This outstanding leasing market performance was accompanied by an all-time high volume of new completions. The warehouse market in Poland grew by another 2.3 million square metres, over 1 million square metres more than in 2016. Over the past five years, the market has almost doubled, bringing stock levels up to 13.5 million square metres by the end of 2017, just behind Italy’s 15.1 million square metres. This gives Poland a solid eighth place in the EU in terms of total stock,” said Jan Jakub Zombirt, associate director, strategic consulting, at JLL.

New locations, higher warehouse standards and adjustments to specific tenant needs have led to the rising popularity of build-to-suit projects. As a result, speculative construction is at a low level.

Greenfield FDI into Poland’s real estate sector garned $7.1bn in 2017, a record high since 2008 according to greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets. This bucks the global FDI trend in real estate, which saw a capital expenditure dip in 2017 after four years of growth.