Polish W/D Trend Static Until Mid-2010

WARSAW-The Polish warehouse market remained slow in third quarter 2009, with new space delivered plunging to 57,000 square meters from nearly 400,000 square meters in 3Q08, realtor Cushman & Wakefield reports. At end-September, only 150,000 square meters was under construction compared with 1.25 million square meters a year earlier. The current trend is not expected to reverse until after mid-2010.

Tenant sentiment improved slightly during the period, with leases signed for nearly 200,000 square meters–the highest figure this year, but still down 64% from a year earlier, Cushman & Wakefield said. The most successful markets were the Warsaw region, central Poland and Upper Silesia. The vacancy rate stabilised at 16.3%, up 5.8 percentage points from a year earlier and totaling nearly one million square meters. The highest vacancy was in Szczecin (100%) and Upper Silesia (21.1%) and the lowest on the Warsaw market (15.7%), in Poznañ (9.3%) and Tricity (1.4%). Given the large volume of vacant space, tenants are continuing to negotiate favorable lease terms.