In the first half of 2016, the supply of warehouse space amounted to nearly 660,000 m², which is a 35% increase over the previous year. In turn, the volume of transactions in the period exceeded 1.4mln, m² of leased warehouse space and was 85% higher than the level of demand recorded in the first half of 2015. The vacancy rate for Class A warehouse space amounted to 5.3%, according to the report by Colliers International – Market Insights | Warehouse market H1 2016.
In January-June this year, the highest level of supply in the Polish warehouse market was observed in Warsaw Zone II (144,000 m2). The Poznan market enjoyed a high level of activity among developers (122,000 m2) as well as the Central Poland region (115 m2). Other regional markets recorded much lower growth of new warehouse space (up to 86,000 m2) in the Silesian market.
The largest warehouse facilities completed during the past two quarters include: four projects delivered by Panattoni, in Stryków (60,000 m2), Poznan (31,.400 m2), Pruszków (30,700 m2) and Lodz (30,100 m2), as well as a warehouse built within the Logistics and Investment Centre in Poznan (31,400 m2) and a BTS (29,500 m2) in the Hillwood Wroclaw 3 logistics park.
“In the whole of Poland at the end of the first quarter of 2016 there were 856,000 m2 of warehouse under construction, of which around 60 % had already been leased. The largest share in demand in the first half-year were tenants from the logistics sector. In the near future, we expect that the smaller warehouse markets will attract new tenants, thereby improving their position on the Polish logistics map”, says Tomasz Kasperowicz, partner and director of the Industrial and Logistics Space Department at Colliers International.
In the first half of 2016, new agreements accounted for 59% of finalised transactions, including 15 % for BTS space. Renegotiations accounted for 38% of all agreements.
At the end of June 2016, 563,000 m² remained vacant in the analysed markets. Currently, the highest vacancy rate was recorded in the Warsaw market, where the average vacancy rate reached 8.4 %. In turn, the lowest vacancy can be observed in Szczecin, Torun and Bydgoszcz, and in Krakow all existing warehouse space is leased.
