Griffin Real Estate is set to acquire an office project in Warsaw, the CEO and co-founder of the fund, Przemysław Krych, said during this year’s Expo Real. “It’s the best time to buy Warsaw’s offices as pricing on some office products have never been as attractive,” says Krych. “We expect to sell two office projects this year and potentially offload a retail project on one of the regional markets.” Krych said Griffin has no plans to sell its substantial retail plot in central Warsaw. “We are planning more acquisitions this year, but it doesn’t mean we’re backing off development. This is why we bought Echo,” he said.
Griffin is also in talks to acquire another Polish development company. “We’re working on a transaction similar to the Echo acquisition, which should address some of the Echo assets properly. We should be able to reveal more details in the first quarter of 2016,” said Krych. “We see a number of opportunities now on the Polish market, as the market is consolidating, which results from the market cycle.” Krych points out that current regulations are pushing Poland’s residential developers to consolidate, as small companies will find it difficult to secure financing for their projects. “Under the new regulation, money will be sitting in escrow accounts, and small developers will find it extremely difficult to get access to their clients money. In order to stay afloat, they need to consolidate, as the smaller developers will be washed off from the market,” Krych said.
