Poland is a market leader in Central Europe’s commercial real estate industry. This is particularly true of the capital, Warsaw. Also, the Polish economy is one of the top five in Europe by Gross Domestic Product. All of this is mirrored in the commercial real estate market of Poland. In fact, almost three-quarters of European real estate investment firms consider Poland “extremely desirable” for investment. At the same time, Warsaw ranks first in numerous city attractiveness rankings. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Warsaw is going head to head, with Prague. The high street sector has the most commercial potential in Poland. This sector is particularly interesting for premium and luxury companies. With that said, today, we will cover in more detail what makes Poland popular for commercial real estate.
1. The growth of retail streets
Warsaw is one of the eight major European cities with the highest potential for retail growth. Therefore, if you’re an investor looking for retail expansion, Poland may be the ideal place for you. Over the years, Poland has seen much development and the growth is consistent over many years. The only hurdle in recent memory was the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Research has shown that the luxury goods market in Poland is one of the biggest economic drivers in the country. The research demonstrates that by 2021, Poland housed up to 1.2 million affluent and wealthy individuals. This means there are more people ready and able to spend.
2. Tourism has been steadily increasing
In terms of tourism, Poland has been a popular destination for European visitors for more than 18 years. Even before then, it was popular around the neighboring countries. However, the real explosion of tourism started after Poland joined the EU in 2004. That said, between 2014 and 2019 alone, the nation received almost 17,2 million visitors. Warsaw, Poland’s capital, has become a popular tourist attraction in the country. Similar to the retail growth, Warsaw almost came close to Prague when it came to tourism. This is really impressive if you take into account that Prague is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.
In 2018, Prague welcomed somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.5 million visitors. On the other hand, Warsaw experienced a drop in tourism of only two million people during that year. In 2018, there were fewer tourists in Warsaw than in Prague; however, the capital of Poland was ranked as a more appealing destination than the Czech capital. A total of one million international shoppers are expected to visit the capital this year, which represents a figure that is rapidly increasing year after year. This proportion accounts for approximately 14 percent of all visitors to the city.
3. Poland has a sizable office market
The office market may be one of the most appealing reasons to consider buying commercial real estate in Poland. However, the office market has taken one of the biggest hits because of COVID-19. One major post-covid commercial real estate trend right is remote work. The third quarter of 2020 witnessed far more evident indicators of a market downturn in Poland’s office sector. This is mostly to do with the COVID-19 epidemic. By the end of September 2020, the entire office stock had surpassed 11.5 million square meters. Warsaw accounted for more than half of that figure.
Kraków and Wroclaw were the biggest regional office markets in Poland. Together, their total office stock was over 2.7 million square meters. Now that things are returning to normal, and people are returning to the office, this can end up being a good thing. However, you need to act fast, because the office space is rapidly selling out. If you are planning on moving from the USA to Poland for this reason, now is the time to do it. These days it’s easy to get all the help you need by hiring international movers.
4. Poland has a large warehousing market
The warehouse sector is the only commercial real estate category that is immune to the COVID-19 epidemic and its socioeconomic ramifications. This means that for the last two years, it was the least economically impacted sector. Throughout 2019 the supply of warehousing space surpassed the 20 million square meter mark. However, the first three quarters of 2020 witnessed a continuation of the previous strong performance on the new supply side. Demand was also strong, with almost four million square meters of leased space available by November 2020.
The results were better than those achieved during the same time period in the previous year. The warehouse market in Poland continues to attract many different businesses. These include logics businesses, distribution centers, industrial conglomerates, and retail chains from all over the world. However, e-commerce businesses are also benefiting from the warehousing space. In fact, businesses involved in the e-commerce industry are the ones benefiting the most from the large amount of warehouse space available in Poland. One of the primary contributors to Poland’s rising profile as a desirable location for the acquisition of commercial property is the country’s rapidly expanding e-commerce industry.
Conclusion on what makes Poland popular for commercial real estate
As you can see, there are many reasons why Poland has been on the rise when it comes to commercial real estate. You are able to find almost everything you need in many different sectors. Additionally, the real estate is affordable, at least compared to what you’ll find in the west. Now that you know what makes Poland popular for commercial real estate, you can start hashing out your plan. The sooner you do it, the sooner your business will reap the benefits.
