Warsaw office vacancies up to 13.3%, CBD with 15.2% of vacant space - report

Office vacancy rates in Warsaw stood at 13.3 percent at the end of 2014, up from 11.7 percent seen at the end of 2013. CBD and CBD fringe had 15.2 percent of vacant space (up from 10.6 percent a year earlier), while vacancies in peripheral areas stood at 12.4 percent, Warsaw Research Forum stated in a report. Warsaw’s office stock stood at 4,392,000 sqm at the end of 2014, after 276,900 sqm was added to the market throughout the year. Developer activity concentrated mostly outside of the city center (70 percent of the newly completed stock), particularly in the south-west (88,200 sqm) and CBD fringe (60,100 sqm). The largest completions of the past year were Gdański Business Center (44,500 sqm), phase one of Eurocentrum Office Complex (38,700 sqm) and building B of the Warsaw Spire complex (20,000 sqm). Take-up for the entire 2014 amounted to 612,000 sqm, 6 percent below last year’s value. The largest lease transactions over the past year were 19,500 sqm leased by Raiffeisen Bank in Prime Corporate Center, 17,500 sqm renegotiated by the Agency for the Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture in Poleczki Business Park and a pre-let of 15,000 sqm by PKP companies in West Station. The Warsaw Research Forum encompasses seven real estate advisory firms: CBRE, Colliers International,  Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ, JLL, Knight Frank and Savills.