Virtual change

Poland is by no means a leader in this field: in Germany, Spain and the UK the proportion is even higher at around 20-40 pct. In Holland the percentage of e-commerce tenants is even in the 40-60 pct bracket. And leading the way on the CEE market is Russia, where internet traders are responsible for 20-40 pct of all the warehouse space leases. The data (from the 'Online Retailing: Impacts, Challenges and Opportunities for European Logistic Market' report by CBRE) are in line with developers' observations. "Last year app. 20 pct of Prologis' activities in terms of built-to-suit facilities were connected with the e-commerce market," says Bartosz Mierzwiak, the vice-president and market officer of Prologis in Poland. However, the most impressive of these transactions for Prologis took place outside Central and Eastern Europe: in the UK Tesco.com has leased a facility with an area of 80,000 sqm, in the US Amazon has occupied 90,000 sqm, while 100,000 sqm was leased by Start Today in Tokyo.