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A RT I C L E
est is encouraged by the growing maturity of office markets outside the capital city which,
in turn, engenders trust from investors. An increasing number of modern office projects,
secured with long term lease agreements and strong demand, generated mostly from the
business services sector acquiring large volumes of space has contributed to the growing
importance of major agglomerations on Poland’s investment map.
All these factors made 2014 the most active year ever for Poland’s major office markets out-
side Warsaw. 2014’s investment volume for these office markets amounted to over EUR 440
million, beating not only the EUR 156 million in 2013 but also the ‘pre-crisis’ record of EUR
346
million in 2006. This was a record level and more than the combined total of the last five
years’ volumes in regional cities. The outstanding regional city was Kraków, witnessing office
transactions totalling EUR 260 million in 2014 – more than the combined office volumes in the
city over the last seven years. An increase in investment activity was also noted in Wrocław,
Tri-City, Łódź, Poznań and Katowice.
The largest office transaction outside Warsaw in 2014 was the sale of Quattro Business
Park in Kraków by Buma Group to Starwood Capital Group. Other large office transactions
outside Warsaw last year were: the sale of the Lubicz Office Centre in Kraków by Peakside
to Griffin Group, the sale of office properties from the portfolio of Arka BZ WBK Property
Market Fund (Quattro Forum in Wrocław, Winogrady Business Center in Poznań, Red
Tower in Łódź and Alfa Plaza in Gdynia) to Octava FIZAN and the Green Day office building
in Wrocław from Skanska to GLL. The largest office transaction finalized in the last 10 years
outside Warsaw was the sale of the abovementioned Quattro Business Park in Kraków.
Looking at the activity of investors, closed transactions in Q1, such as the Baltic Business Center,
West House 1B and Green Horizon, ongoing talks, the large contracts expected to be finalized
this year including the largest ever regional investment transaction – Dominikański – we expect
another very good year in the office segment outsideWarsaw. It is possible to far exceed the EUR
440
million record. At the same time we expect a decrease in turnover in Warsaw – the reason
for this will not be a lack of investor interest, but the potentially limited availability of large good
quality products for sale. After last year’s spectacular purchase/sale contracts of flagship office
buildings such as Rondo 1 or Metropolitan, as well as transactions from previous years like the
sale of WFC, not too many large products are currently available for purchase with a high avail-
ability of capital. Thus, we expect stability in Warsaw or even a downward pressure on yields,
which should result in an increase in prices on the markets throughout the country.
Tomasz Puch
Head of Office and Industrial Investment, JLL Poland