Positive Thinking

Rafał Ostrowski, ‘Eurobuild CEE’: What is the current sentiment on the office development market in Poland? Jeroen Van der Toolen, Ghelamco’s managing director in the CEE region: I think the office market is very healthy. Last year we witnessed record breaking leasing activity. According to the main real estate agencies, over 1.38 mln sqm of space was leased in Poland, including over 830,000 sqm of the total net take-up in Warsaw. According to the data, this was the third largest take-up in Europe after London and Paris. Before 2015 everybody was forecasting that the vacancy rate in Warsaw would increase, but it actually went down. And our company itself signed 80,000 sqm of lease agreements, which made it a record breaking year for us. So considering the forecasts for 2016, we are again very positive regarding the number of lease agreements that can be signed. We can also see the regional markets getting stronger. Just before we talk about