German revival lifts the mood

Thirty eight thousand people came to Munich to quaff lager on the final day of the Oktoberfest and, with a slight headache, attend Expo Real on the following Monday. A year ago 37,000 professionals working on the real estate market decided to make a similar effort. Also the number of exhibitors increased from 1,610 in 2001 to 1,700 this year. The largest national grouping represented Germany, while the UK came second and Austria was third. Poland came fifth, the Czech Republic was eighth and Russia had the ninth largest contingent. The German character of the event was more perceptible this year. This confirmed the fact that the real estate sector in the country, as well as its whole economy, seems to be relatively stable compared to the rest of Europe, which is encouraging investors and bankers to limit their interest to the German (most often their home) market. At the same time the status of brand ?Poland' continues to grow by the year. Speaking about the presence of exhibitors from the country, Krzysztof Kiljański, the director of the Munich Fair Office in Poland, noted that this year they rented 870 sqm at the event - 60 sqm more than in 2011. The number of Polish exhibitors also increased from 44 in 2011 to 55 this year. There were also 575 visitors. "It is an interesting fact that this year the most numerous group among the people who came to the fair from Poland were lawyers, around 70 people, and financiers, around 60 representatives of various banks," noted Krzysztof Kiljański. One of them is Andrzej Lulka, who is now in the process of saying goodbye to the Gide Loyrette Nouel law firm and is setting up his own practice. This was another noticeable trend - staff changes. Radosław Wawrzyniak (who used to work for a long time for CBRE), Szymon Konop (a former employee of PL.2012) and Jarosław Bator (a former employee of Ernst & Young) have now been put in charge of the real estate of the Polish State Railways (PKP), whose portfolio includes more than 100,000 properties. Expo Real is first of all a good place to make an entrance. This year this opportunity was taken by Jason Sharman and Ian Church, who have established Sharman Church Chartered Surveyors together. The industry meeting in Munich is also a good place to get a feel of the atmosphere on the investment market, and for talks between developers and those interested in buying. "We closed another transaction with Panattoni about financing the extension of Panattoni Park Żary this time. However, we are open to cooperation with other warehouse developers in Central and Eastern Europe," announced Jennifer L. Lucas, the director of W.P. Carey. Did the heads of Mermaid Properties, who were assessing the interest in the Libra Business Centre complex in Warsaw, or Jeroen van der Toolen of Ghelamco also meet such open investors at the fair? This year the Belgian developer is looking for companies interested in its newly-built Senator office building in Warsaw as well as its Mokotów Nova building, also located in the capital city. Another office building which is ready for a change in owner is Katowice Business Point. "Our plans also involve purchases. We are looking for plots for office projects in Warsaw and Kraków, among other places," declared Jeroen van der Toolen, who came to Munich with his leg in a plaster cast. And this is the explanation for my reference to football earlier. It was probably the most often used word by the head of Ghelamco during this year's fair, as it was the answer to the first question asked by everyone he met: what happened to your leg?