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nearly 900 thousand sq.m of available, vacant offices. How
long do you think will the oversupply crisis last?
I wouldn’t call the current situation a crisis. We are tal-
king about a market that is developing all the time, so
it’s a natural thing that there are various junctures. The
fact that so much is being built indicates, that it is an at-
tractive market for both tenants and investors. Obviously,
with this scale of investments we have a temporary over-
heating in the market, but this space will be absorbed
sooner or later. Companies are expanding, relocating,
we see more and more tenants from the public admini-
stration sector moving to commercial buildings. For now,
they account for only 10% of the entire market, but the
percentage is set to rise. I believe that the turn of 2017
and 2018 will be the moment, when prime office spa-
ce will become scarce. There will always be demand for
modern buildings, developed according to the standards
of sustainable building. The current situation poses the
biggest challenge for aging office buildings – especially
those built between 1990-2000 get old the fastest. They
were built at high pace and in lower standard, because
there was simply no office space at the time and every-
thing was leased hand over fist. In my opinion, such faci-
lities have to undergo major changes – some of them will
be thoroughly renovated, others will be pulled down and
replaced by new ones.
Do you think the Warsaw market – in particular deserted,
substandard buildings – can join the struggle for tenants from
the BPO/SSC sector?
Absolutely. Even today Warsaw is the leading market in
Poland as far as BPO is concerned, together with Kraków
and Wrocław. Many companies from this sector locate the-
ir headquarters, or at least branches, in the capital to have
easy access to customers. Their offices take up less space
than, for example, in Kraków, but it is still a very important
market for them. Therefore, the BPO sector can also be
a potential tenant of those older office buildings.
Which of the regional office markets do you consider to be
the most prospective?
I consider all the regional markets in Poland to be very pro-
spective. We continue to see rapid growth of the BPO/SSC
sector and its progressive specialization – outsourcing in
Poland is no longer just simple call-centers, but increasingly
specialized services. Individual markets are starting to specia-
lize: Kraków heavily focuses on IT, the banking and financial
sector, Wrocław – on R&D centers.
We are taking advantage of our strategic location in Europe
and high availability of an excellently educated, foreign lan-
guage speaking workforce. A possibility to get the highest
quality service in over 30 languages, in the European Union,
in the close geographical vicinity, in the same time zone and
at very good price – this is a unique set of advantages. But if
I were to point to specific markets, then besides the obvious
ones – Kraków and Wrocław – I would draw attention to the
fantastically developing city of Katowice. An excellent loca-
tion, a well-developed transport infrastructure, easier access
to employees than in Kraków, where the competition and
struggle for the best of them is stronger. We also see a gro-
wing interest in Poznań, the Tri-City and Łódź.
We always ask office developers this question: what, in your
opinion, determines the success of an office project? Loca-
tion, price, standard, or perhaps something else?
In our business, they say that what matters is location, lo-
cation, location, and this is probably the best answer to this
question (
laughter
).
But I would also add standard – susta-
inable building is becoming more and more common, the
requirements and awareness of tenants are much higher
than just a few years ago. While looking for a new office,
they less and less often ask themselves the question “where
can I pay the least?”, and more and more often “what can
I get for this price?”, “in what conditions will my employees
work?, “what values guide the company which has created
this space?”. As a developer, we don’t focus on doing it the
fastest and the cheapest way, because the building will stand
here for at least 30 years and throughout this time it should
serve its tenants as well as on the first day, providing them
with access to fresh air, good insolation, low energy bills,
water efficiency etc. Let’s remember that the biggest item
in the budget of any company are employee salaries – the
cost of the office accounts for only 10-15% of expenses. If,
by providing the employees with the best possible office
space, we are able to increase their efficiency by, let’s say,
3%,
it will generate much greater savings than, for example,
halving water bills.
What, in your opinion, is currently the biggest quandary for
commercial developers operating in the Polish market: high
prices and non-availability of building plots, slow coopera-
tion with local authorities at the project preparation stage,
or perhaps something else?
It depends on the specifics of a market. In Warsaw, the big-
gest quandary is what we have already mentioned – that
so much is being built, fierce competition puts pressure on
rents and costs, it is definitely the tenant’s market. A signifi-
cant problem is also the issue of obtaining all building per-
mits efficiently in the absence of local land development
plans. In regional cities, in turn, there is often a dearth of
suitable plots in good locations.
Which of the office buildings developed by Skanska in Poland
do you consider the most successful and why?
It’s a difficult choice. Every building we create is different; we
always try to properly embed it in the existing urban fabric, so
that it is inscribed in the daily life of the local community and
functions well as a public space, not only for those who work in
it. I feel great fondness for Malta House in Poznań at the Malta
Lake. Dominikański on the Dominikański Square inWrocław is
a new, gorgeous project whose striking, open courtyards are
certain to be appreciated by local residents. Also extraordinary
is the Axis project in Kraków, where, together with residents,
city authorities and local investors, we are planning to build
a special “superpath” linking two large roundabouts and cre-
ating a unique urban layout for the local community.
Why is Skanska staying clear of the capital’s flagship „office
hub” in Służewiec Przemysłowy?
A few years ago we took a conscious decision to discontinue
our presence in this area of Warsaw, not only due to strong
price competition. Our concerns were related to the lack of
good infrastructure, traffic congestion, inadequate quality of
life. We would not be able to provide the users with the kind
of work comfort that we set for ourselves as a standard. It
doesn’t mean, however, that we will not return to this loca-
tion in the future.
Hot desking – will it take hold in our market?
Everything depends on the character of a company’s work.
Every decision to change office arrangement should be pre-
ceded by detailed research. We have decided to introduce
activity-based workplaces, because our observations have
concluded that only 30-50% of desks are occupied during
a working day. Research has also shown demand for more
meeting rooms and small conference rooms as our employ-
ees have many “face-to-face” meetings or work in groups
of three. Advances in communication technology mean we
can work basically anywhere. People prefer to work on so-
fas, comfortable poufs or swings. We have more and more
“
Y generation” employees, for whom the possibility of wor-
king in a chosen place and time is more important than the-
ir own desk in a “chickenbox”. In our office we also have
a gym, a relaxation room with table football and a comfor-
table kitchen, where employees can spend time together
over a coffee and integrate.
Of course, fewer desks means lower rental costs due to
a reduced floor space – but the overriding goal should be
to improve work efficiency. Today we work with virtually
no paper documents, so we can do away with cabinets
completely. We don’t need kilometres of cables, becau-
se many processes are done wirelessly, laptops are repla-
cing desktops, so desks can be smaller. For instance, I do-
n’t have one – I just don’t need it for anything. Thanks to
this, I have a good contact with employees, a better feel
for the office dynamics and I know what problems and
challenges are faced by individual departments.
Are you planning any new office projects in Poland in the next
24
months? If so, what are they?
We are certainly planning to complete all the projects that
have already started, that is Atrium II, Maraton in Poznań,
Dominikański in Wrocław and Axis in Kraków. We also
want to launch our large Generation Park project near
Rondo Daszyńskiego in Warsaw. As for our upcoming
plans – we intend to build even more than before, in both
Warsaw and regional cities.
