From the perspective of a company in the financial sector, how would you assess the current state of the Polish commercial real estate market? How does it differ from those in the West – especially, in your experience, Germany?
Dieter V. Knittel, the managing director and CEE head of Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG: The commercial real estate market in Poland started to pick up earlier than some of the other European markets, primarily due to its historically higher yields, which allowed a faster alignment of price expectations. A number of new green buildings across Poland now fulfil important ESG requirements. And so, the CEE region performs better than some other European markets in terms of notable transactions in the office and retail sectors. We like Poland very much, as it’s the dominant CEE market, and we plan to carry out several new transactions here this year.
What has changed the most over the last 25–30 years?
Poland has become a more mature market in Europe and over the last 30 years has shown how resilient it is. It’s fantastic to see how the country developed, for instance, when you look at the Warsaw skyline today and compare it to how it looked when I came here 30 years ago, when the first big French hypermarkets opened.
Which events over the last quarter of a century do you consider to have had the greatest impact on the current shape of the market in Poland and the region?
Poland joining the EU allowed a lot of international market players to enter the market. Poland is still dominated by international capital, but we are now seeing more local, CEE money chasing product, which is bringing a lot of liquidity and stability to the market, as can already be seen in places like the Czech Republic. Although the political situation in Poland has not had an overarching influence on the real estate market, it remains a matter of concern. Few societies in Europe are as divided as in Poland. It can only be hoped that this will improve over time and allow Poland to take its rightful place on the European political scene.
What should we expect in the years ahead of us? Will ‘Eurobuild’ still have plenty to write about?
Over the last 30 years, Poland and the entire CEE region have been through so many crises and conflicts, but always came out of them exhibiting very strong fundamentals and GDP growth – even in the most difficult times. So many experienced market professionals have been active in the Polish market for such a long time. I’m positive about the future of the CEE market, and ‘Eurobuild’, as a very important source of information for the real estate market, will definitely be able to write a lot of articles in the years to come.
