Bettering the West

Nathan North, Eurobuild CEE: The projected investment volumes for this year are lower than for the last two. Does this reflect a slowdown in Poland and the CEE region or a global trend? Sean Doyle, head of capitals markets, CBRE Poland: One reason for this is that over the last two years, volumes were inflated by large retail portfolio and logistics platform deals. However, in terms of the number of transactions, this year will exceed both 2018 and 2017. Poland is now viewed as a core market by global capital. Ultimately, it is the strong economy and the occupational market fundamentals across sectors that are really encouraging investment in Poland. In recent years logistics has been a consistently strong performer but it is with Warsaw office that we are seeing a real spike in investment volumes. Over the last three years the annual net office absorption for Warsaw office has averaged around 350,000 sqm, while in 2018 it was 375,000 sqm. This places it alongside London and Paris amo