The largest investments in progress during the 1st half of 2017 are three BTS buildings with the area of over one hundred thousand sq. m: “two constructed for the Amazon network (161 000 sq. m in Szczecin and 135 000 sq. m in Sosnowiec) and managed by Panattoni, and a Zalando storehouse (130 000 sq. m) erected in Szczecin by Goodman” reads the report drawn up by Savillis, an international property consulting firm. The report sums up the first half of the year on the warehouse property market in Poland.

 

Amazon Robotics e-commerce centre in Kołbaskowo is in the midst of its recruitment process.  It will start business activity from early autumn, most probably in September.  

 

Zalando distribution centre in Gardno has been operational since August.  The first dispatches should be made at the end of August.   At the same time, it is still recruiting new employees. 

 

According to Savillis, there was record high warehouse and industrial development activity in Poland in 1H17 - over 1.6 million sq. m of warehouse and industrial space was under construction across Poland, which is twice as much as during the analogous period in 2016. Three quarters of that space has already been let.

 

Approx. 800 thousand sq. m (i.e. 17% more that in the previous year) was placed into service over the period. The largest structures that were completed include: extension of P3 Błonie centre in the Warsaw area (47.5 thousand sq. m), Kaufland in Bydgoszcz (45.7 thousand sq. m) and extension of Prologis Park Piotrków II (42.2 thousand sq. m). 

 

The total pool of warehouse space in Poland is estimated at approx. 11.8 million sq. m. The regions where most of that space is located include:  Warsaw (28%) and Upper Silesia (18%). Only 2% of the warehouse space is in the Szczecin region. 

 

The report also indicates that a very high demand for warehouse and industrial space was observed in Poland: “1.9  million sq. m which was let during the first six months  of 2017 is counted among the record volumes in history - the value is almost twice as high as over the analogous period of 2016 (1.3 million sq. m)”.

 

The vacancy rate was also relatively low - approx. 5.9%. The highest vacancy rate was found in Szczecin (8.9%), Poznań (8.8%), Kraków (8.4%) and Wrocław (8.1%).

 

"Rents effectively remain stable, fluctuating from EUR 1.80 sq. m /month to EUR 3.00 sq. m /month for larger modules such as BIG BOX, and reaching EUR 4.80 sq. m /month for SBU- type units" - the report reads. 

 

“The situation on the warehouse space market in Poland remains favourable.  The Polish market has not saturated and there still is some development potential. The dropping unemployment rate might stimulate the spreading of blank spots on the warehousing map of Poland, since some of the lessees may find the better access to the employee pools in those regions tempting. The dynamic growth of the e-commerce sector also constitutes a significant growth driver, considering that it calls for solid logistic and warehousing facilities. There is nothing to suggest that the economy would turn around soon.  What is more, this year promises to be even better than the last one,” comments Wojciech Zoń, Director, Warehousing and Industrial Space Department, Savills.