Sunny outlook for Poznan's office market

2010-03-04

Currently, the country’s capital has the largest supply of office space. Meanwhile, Krakow and Wroclaw also have exceptionally sizeable local stock of offices, with over 20% shares in total office space in Poland. In the opinion of analysts, it is Poznan that has the best development prospects, as reported by Rzeczpospolita. Approx. 10% of available space is not leased. In the opinion of analysts, investors may be attracted to the city by the municipal authorities’ investor-friendly policies, under which they are offered such incentives as financial grants for IT or foreign language lessons for future employees.
Based on data published by King Sturge, regional cities (Krakow, Poznan, Katowice, Lodz, Wroclaw and the Tri-City) grew in the past year by approx. 230,000 m² of office space, to a total of 1.6 million m². Meanwhile, Warsaw alone has offices with leasable space of over 3 m m². The largest number of square meters of office space was completed in 2009 in Krakow (37% of all newly completed offices) and Lodz (17%). This year, Poland’s voivodship capitals will accumulate approximately 303,000 m² of modern office space, of which 265,000 m² is already under construction.
A high percentage share of unleased space and the related drop in lease rates may, according to analysts, make Poland attractive as a location for new finance and accounting (F&A) and information technology (IT) service centres. Poland is additionally a good location because of the high availability of educated and qualified employees who are ready to work for rates that are highly competitive relative to what must be paid in Western Europe. Also, investors are not indifferent to special economic zones and numerous industrial and technology parks, which woe them with advantageous terms and conditions for engaging in business within their premises..
According to King Sturge’s experts cited by the newspaper, Poznan currently houses approx. 200,000 m² of modern office space, with an additional ca. 22,000 m² currently under construction.