Largest Polish regional cities overtook Warsaw for the second time this year in terms of the amount of office space leased. Wrocław was the most active, accounting for 37 percent of all contracts signed in the third quarter of this year. The Tri-City was in second place, and Krakow was in third, according to the latest CBRE report. The IT industry was primarily responsible for such a big move in the market. Despite the pandemic, 305,000 sqm of new space to work have been added to the regions since the beginning of the year, which is almost the same as in the corresponding period of 2019.

In the third quarter of 2020, 126,500 sqm of space was leased in the eight largest regional markets (Kraków, Wrocław, Tricity, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, Lublin).This is 10 percent  more than in the previous quarter, but almost 36 percent less than in the same period last year.

“In the first and third quarter of this year. the largest regional cities have outperformed the capital in terms of rented office space. We did not record such situations in previous years. Slightly more than half of the leased space is renegotiation of contracts, and a third concerned new spaces with pre-let. Compared to the second quarter, the share of expansion, i.e. contracts concluded for additional space, increased. This is a good signal for the market as it shows that there is still room for development. Despite the epidemic, office markets in the largest Polish cities are doing well ,” Kamil Tyszkiewicz, head of regional markets at CBRE, said.

Almost 700,000 sqm of office space are still under construction.

(WBJ)