Manager needed

Outsourcing the management of large property portfolios in Poland is still a thing of the future. Though such an approach is normal in the West, most Polish companies prefer employing their own specialists. Are things about to change?

In the opinion of Volker Dittmeier, director of the asset management department of CorpusSireo: “If independent property management is applied in a company which is not familiar with the idea, then this can sometimes
lead to disaster. By separating the asset management side in Deutsche Telekom AG and entrusting Sireo Real Estate with these services, we demonstrated that a company’s property can be made better use of, property-related costs reduced and the strategic growth of a portfolio better adapted to a changing market.” The German company now manages 12,000 properties owned by the regional telecommunications giant.

A market already partly penetrated ...

Bartosz Soroczyński, president of International Facility Management Associates Polska, which represents real estate managers, stresses that the Polish outsourcing market is still in its infancy, even though entrusting another company with such duties has become the standard in some industries. Mr Soroczyński is convinced: “This method functions excellently when it comes to banking and finance companies, while a large untapped potential exists in the public, local government and energy generating sectors. The Polish market has much to offer. In the West the talk is rather about changing property managing partners, while in Poland efforts are instead being concentrated on finding them.”

Volker Dittmeir of CorpusSireo, in his analysis of the Polish market comments that: “Many companies still do not seem to perceive the financial significance of their real estate assets. Increasing competition will gradually force them to reduce costs, which will entail the necessary solutions for the real estate side. Property accounts for around 10 pct of the entire value of a company’s assets, while real estate related costs are second only to salaries as the largest block of a business’s expenses.”

... and partly emerging

It would seem that neither the TP Group of which Telekomunikacja Polska and Centertel are members have decided to hire a company to manage their branches and properties, despite outsourcing’s undoubted merits. These tasks are being performed by a newly created real estate management department for all companies within the group. But having said that, the company also employs external specialists. It is assisted by Savills when selling properties of greater values which are superfluous to the running of its basic activities. Jacek Kalinowski, a TP Group spokesperson, remarks that: “The principal reason why we are going it alone in property management is the fact that we have worked together with a group of experienced administrators which have dealt with our portfolio for years and know it inside out. To that it must be added that our properties are situated throughout practically the whole country, not only in cities, but also in distant locations where it would be nigh on impossible to find a company which could take over those duties from us while guaranteeing proper quality. But this is not to say that we could change our approach in the future.”

On the other hand, Bartosz Soroczyński of IFMA is of the opinion that it would be easy to find a company in Poland today which could tackle such a complex portfolio. Large managers often cooperate with local subcontractors. The important thing for a customer is that the job and risk is delivered to one partner who will ensure a high standard of services, including those performed by subcontractors.

Provident Polska, a company which has it headquarters in Warsaw and 86 branches throughout the country, has also yet to decide to employ an external company to manage them. A separate unit exists within the company which looks after the branches. Three people are responsible for acquiring and maintaining the properties. Adrianna Koc, of Provident Polska’s procurements department, is afraid that: “Outsourcing costs at the moment are exorbitant, and besides, our employees are performing very efficiently – something which could be undermined were their duties given over to people unconnected with the company.”

Open Finance and PKO BP and BZ WBK banks also manage their own properties independently, and for the same reasons as TP Group and Provident Polska. It seems that the era of outsourcing property management is still some way off.                                     n

Emil Górecki