Poland in the top 20 most attractive locations for China

Poland is ranked 17th among 67 key locations for Chinese investment, says Elżbieta Czerpak, the head of research at Knight Frank commenting on the findings of the company’s latest ‘New Frontiers’ report.

The opening of a railway line between Chengdu and Łódź has contributed to a significant rise in bilateral trade volumes between Poland and China. The country was ranked highly due to the effectiveness of its institutions that allow investors to place capital more easily, a market that is accessible to direct foreign investment, and a rapidly developing infrastructure.

In 2016 China’s foreign direct investment in Poland totalled USD 563 mln. Poland was the largest recipient of Chinese FDI among the countries in the Visegrad Group and the eighth in the European Union. The importance of Poland is further demonstrated by its standing in the ‘16+1’ group, which collects together the CEE countries that collaborate with China. The effects of this collaboration started to gain momentum in 2013 with the opening of a direct freight railway linking Poland and China. We estimate that bilateral trade between the countries grew by almost 30 pct as a result of the cargo terminal connecting Łódź and Chengdu.

Chinese investors are showing a growing interest in Polish real estate. The first signs of activity from Chinese investors on the local commercial real estate market could be seen a few years ago, when the Bank of China took part in refinancing a number of office investments. Currently, Chinese investors in Poland are actively looking mostly for warehouse assets. However, such investors from the Middle Kingdom remain open to other sectors of the market. A key investment deal was completed in Q4 2017, when China Invest Corporation acquired the Logicor warehouse portfolio for USD 15 bln. Twenty eight of the 43 locations were properties located in Poland. And their total area comes to app. 900,000 sqm while their total value is almost USD 640 mln.