Łódź almost top in logistics
Warehouse space is most costly in strategic locations such as infrastructure investment sites and Warsaw remains the most expensive location to launch a warehouse and logistics park, according to new research from Colliers.
Prices in the first zone, which is within 10km of the city centre, reach EUR 45-60 (zł.179-239) per sqm. Locations in close vicinity to strategic infrastructure investment sites are also very costly, says the report, which looks at the warehouse market in Q3 2005. In general, the prices average EUR 15-30 (zł.60-119) per sqm.
The total stock of modern industrial space in Warsaw is now 1.2 million sqm. The bulk of it, 595,318 sqm, is in the second zone, which is 10-25km from the city centre. This zone recorded a 13-percent vacancy rate, the highest in the region. Total vacancy rate as to industrial space in Warsaw is 9.75 percent and has been falling in recent years.
Silesia is the second biggest industrial region in Poland, with 140,000 sqm of warehousing space. The third region, Łód, which has 101,000 sqm, is the most promising area as to warehouse space, with a planned 1.2 million sqm of space. In total, Poland has 1.6 million sqm of modern industrial space and it is estimated that a further three million sqm is under construction.
The report reveals that although Warsaw remains the largest industrial market in the country, other regions are becoming more and more active. Unfortunately, very often the purchase of land for warehousing is blocked by the lack of spatial development plans in selected administrative units. Another problem is that warehouse investors are often superseded by residential investment developers, who are willing to pay exorbitant land prices that are beyond the budgets of logistics developers.
From all regions, Kraków seems to offer the worst conditions for warehouse investment. With the prices varying from EUR 30-50 (zł.119-199), it only has 8,000 sqm of existing warehouse space and 11,000 sqm planned. It is mostly in that region that the land-plot prices are dictated by the City's politics, as they are reluctant to prepare the spatial development plans.
Interestingly, on the Colliers list, Gdańsk in the Pomorskie voivodship has no available modern industrial space.
