FAST DEVELOPMENT OF CENTRAL POLAND AND EMERGENCE OF NEW MARKETS
Key findings from the repot „Market in Minutes – Warehouse and Industrial Market in Poland”:
- Record high new supply (2.4 million sq m).
- The highest demand in history (4.3 million sq m)
- For the first time over 1 million sq m leased in single region – Central Poland
For the first time in history demand in single region has exceeded over 1 million sq m. Poland wide record high gross take-up at 4.3 million sq m was observed. Never before during 12 months so many new developments have been added to the market. New supply reached 2.4 million sq m. These are main figures describing warehouse and industrial market in Poland in 2017 summarised by Savills.
According to „Market in Minutes – Warehouse and Industrial Market in Poland" demand for warehouse space in 2017 was record high at 4.3 million sq m country wide, an increase of 30% y-o-y. Nearly half of the volume (45%) was generated by e-commerce and 3PL sectors.
„E-commerce remains one of the key sectors influencing warehouse market and the development of the sector is not expected to slow down. Companies from the sector, which leased very large warehouses of over 100,000 sq m last year, plan further expansion in Poland. Thus, further record high volumes may be expected. Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind the warehouse market can be volatile and economic slowdown may influence the market rather fast.” – explains Wojciech Zoń, Head of Industrial Agency, Savills.
Never before gross demand has exceeded 1 million sq m in a single region. In 2017 this level was achieved for first time. The record was reached in Central Poland, where during 12 months over 1.08 million sq m was leased. As usual, the Warsaw market experienced high demand with over 990,700 sq m leased. Leasing activity in Upper Silesia reached 791 400 sq m.
According to Savills data new supply was also record high. In 2017, 2.4 million sq m were completed Poland wide. The largest projects were three warehouses built for tenants from e-commerce sector. Two were developed by Panattoni and one by Goodman, each of them over 100,000 sq m large: Thus, total stock of warehouse and industrial space in Poland reached 13.5 million sq m at the end of 2017.
Over 465,000 sq m of warehouse space was completed in Warsaw, whereas in Upper Silesia new supply stood at 402,600 sq m. Central Poland also develops at a fast pace with 310,300 sq m of new space completed last year. At the end of 2017, 1.4 million sq m of warehouse and industrial space was under construction country wide.
„Due to the boom on the market new locations emerge. In West Poland, that is in cities outside main markets such as Poznań, Wrocław and Szczecin, where as far as in 2015 modern stock was strongly limited, at the end of 2017 over 143,000 sq m was under construction, which indicates doubling the stock within several or so months. In the near future, less popular locations in the west of Poland such as Zielona Góra, Świebodzin, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Bolesławiec and Słubice may attract more attention of both developers and tenants.” – adds Wojciech Zoń from Savills.
Despite high pace of development vacancy rate decreased by 30 bps y-o-y to 5.4% at the end of 2017. Headline rents range between EUR 2.60 sq m/month and EUR 4.00 sq m/month in case of BIG BOX, up to EUR 5.25 sq m/month in case of SBU in Warsaw.
„Regardless of the boom lasting a few years now, the growth of the market has healthy basis. High demand is based on rising industrial production and growing consumption. Developers avoid building new warehouses on fully-speculative basis. Thus, we can think of Poland as fully matured market gaining on importance in this part of Europe”” – sums up Wojciech Zoń, Head of Industrial Agency, Savills.
