The largest number of warehouses are being built in history. Most of them are already leased

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The warehouse market in Poland had been doing well for years, but the pandemic has further accelerated its development. The amount of space under construction is now the highest it has ever been and amounts to over 2.5 million sq m of modern warehouses, almost three quarters of which are already secured with leases, according to CBRE’s latest report. In the first quarter of 2021, the warehouse space put into use also increased significantly. It reached 766,000 sq m, which is 79% more year-on-year and 159% more than in the last quarter of last year. As a result, the modern warehouse space in Poland amounts to as much as 21.3 million sq m.

– The pandemic has heated up the warehouse market, whose growth rate is accelerating even further. The need to secure supply chains and streamline them, as well as the greater emphasis on the e-commerce market, have been strongly highlighted by the pandemic. In addition, new warehouses, through the use of the latest technology and an increasing focus on environmental protection, are ideally suited to current needs. There is a lot of construction going on and most new projects find tenants quickly. The space delivered in the first quarter of this year alone accounts for more than a third of the total supply in 2020. This allows us to predict that we will close 2021 with a record result – says Beata Hryniewska, Head of the Warehouse Space and Logistics Department at CBRE.

Warehouses are growing in sight

The total supply of modern warehouse space after the first quarter of 2021 is 21.3 million sqm. More than 2.5 million sqm is under construction. A significant portion of this emerging space, 1.2 million sq m, is construction started this year. The largest amount of space is being built in the Wielkopolska Region – 431 thousand sq m, as well as in the Łódzkie Voivodship – 411 thousand sq m and in the Śląskie Voivodship – 353 thousand sq m.

Almost historical interest

In the first quarter of 2021, the demand in the warehouse market amounted to 1.63 million sq.m. This is the highest result ever recorded at the beginning of the year and one of the highest quarterly results.

The majority of this demand was accounted for by new deals, expansions and BTS agreements, with renewals taking up 30% of warehouse demand. The largest lease transaction was a deal for 109,000 sq m of warehouse space at Panattoni BTS Poznań.

Few vacancies

Such a high interest in warehouses allows to maintain a low vacancy rate. It currently stands at 6.5%. Year-on-year, this means a decrease of 0.6 percentage points in the vacant space. Base rents for warehouse space in the first quarter of this year remained unchanged and stable at EUR 4-5.2 sq.m/month in Warsaw and EUR 2.7-3.9 sq.m/month in the remaining regions of the country. The level of incentives and rent-free periods remained unchanged.

Source: CBRE