According to BNP Paribas Real Estate, Poland saw its second-busiest year in 2015, with property investments of more than €4bn in deals concluded by the end of the year, a 30 percent jump. In a new report BNP points out that 61 percent of the transactions closed in the fourth quarter of the year. In all, 70 deals closed last year, with retail investment bouncing back from low figures in 2014. Retail outpaced office and warehouse last year and was responsible for 55 percent of deals conducted last year in the Polish property sector, followed by office (33 percent).
Prime yields continued to fall for all assets classes reaching levels of between 5.50 percent and 5.75 percent at the end of 2015. This marks a compression of between 0.25-0.50 recorded in the fourth quarter of last year.
“The majority of capital flowing into the Polish real estate market came from the US and Germany, accounting for 29 percent and 23 percent of market share. Interestingly, the third place belonged to Polish investors, responsible for 13 percent of transaction volume,” said Anna Staniszewska, Director of research and consulting at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland in the CEE region. She said Echo Investment acquisition by Griffin Real Estate fund was one of the primary factors in the result. “Another significant deal of a similar kind in 2015 was the takeover of TriGranit by TPG Real Estate. The cumulative value of both transactions is estimated at €800m.”
“Last year we saw some significant transactions in their structure and volume. It should be noted that apart from ownership changes in case of Stary Browar in Poznań or Riviera in Gdynia, investors interested in retail were also very active on smaller regional markets. It shows that the interest is dispersed but still focused on prime assets,” said John Palmer, Director in Capital Markets department, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland.
