Scrapping it out

Fighting for a place on the Polish housing market is nothing new for international estate agents. Colliers International established such a section in 1997, at the same time as its Polish office opened. Its main business involves providing services to foreigners for the renting of apartments and houses, but it is also responsible for residential marketing strategies. However, the complex situation on the housing market resulted in the department closing down in 2001. Colliers International’s head office is not considering re-opening this section since, as they claim, the firm is concentrating its attention on specializing in commercial properties. DTZ and Jones Lang LaSalle have also decided not to set up such a department.

Madrid to Poland

CB Richard Ellis, on the other hand, has taken a different approach and has decided to carve out a niche for itself in this sector. As Mikołaj Martynuska, director of CB Richard Ellis’s Residential Department: “Our residential section is successfull in the sales of housing in many European countries, for example in the UK and Spain, and we became aware that many European developers also wish to enter the Polish market. So it was quite natural that we opened a residential department in Poland, which is a joint venture of CB Richard Ellis Polska and CB Richard Ellis Spain.”

Housing industry episode

Anna Kwiatkowska, head of Cushman & Wakefield’s new Residential Department, reveals that: “We intend to assist developers from the very beginning of an investment up to its final moment, that is from the search for an appropriate location along the long road of administrative red tape, through the consulting process during the design stage of a building and right up to the selling of the completed homes”. Ms. Kwiatkowska has been with the company for 10 years, where she initially worked in the office section, before moving on to the residential department. She acted as a consultant during the sales of the Holland Park residential complex in Warsaw, an ING Real Estate investment, with one building sold to Yours Investment in 2003, and the other two later being bought by the Marcol Group in 2006.

First successes

These new market operators are staying tight-lipped about their achievements, claiming it is still too early to brag about successes, and would rather focus on establishing themselves and their potential. But Anna Kwiatkowska of Cushman & Wakefield did reveal that the company is currently concluding four contracts, two for the sales of plots of 7 and 36-ha for housing construction in Warsaw, another which will give the company excusive rights to sell 240 homes and the fourth for around 900 flats in Kraków (the current developer intends to move into another field of activity). Mikołaj Martynuska provided us with more details: “We have already carried out the first comprehensive analyses of the market as well as investment profitability studies for customers. We are also acting as consultants in a process in which a Polish company is being taken over by a Spanish company, as well as the expansion of a Spanish developer on to the Polish market, through a joint venture with a Polish partner. As regards apartment sales, these are planned to get off the ground at the end of 2006.”

 Let’s go shopping

Reporting the news

Many companies are now engaged in preparing reports on the state of the market. The first reports for clients have been written up by Cushman & Wakefield, King Sturge and CB Richard Ellis – who are planning to make theirs generally available to the media next year. For its part, RedNet drafts special monthly and quarterly market reports for customers and also easily available reports for the media.

90 pct of all Warsaw investments between 1998 and 2007. Our research presently includes five cities other than Warsaw: Kraków, Poznań, Tricity, Łódź and Wrocław”. He goes on to stress that Reas also monitors the preferences of customers for new homes. This year’s research was performed by the SMG/KRC Millward Brown institute for Reas.

Substituting sales section

Should a developer wish to avoid setting up a sales department or is looking for assistance in selling homes, he can choose from a large number of companies ready to help out. Cushman & Wakefield, CB RE and RedNet (which plans to sell the first apartments in September, as well as established names such as Ober Haus and Knight Frank, offer such services. Magdalena Zakrzewska, head of Knight Frank’s Residential Department is confident that: “We are able to prepare a comprehensive offer for a customer from advising them which specific homes will quickly find purchasers in a given locality, through to the preparation of a marketing strategy, and up to and including selling the finished homes.”