Record-breaking office absorption for Warsaw

Warsaw has registered the highest office stock take-up in Europe in the past year, on an absorption versus supply basis.

JLL has reported that Poland’s capital saw record-breaking new occupancy rates in 2017, with companies moving into an additional 800,000 square meters of office space. Warsaw saw a year-on-year increase of 360,000 square meters in occupied space and was only beaten by Paris, which posted a 440,000-square-meter increase. However, as Paris’ total office stock is almost 10 times that of Warsaw, the Polish city has taken first position in relative terms, says Tomasz Trzósło, managing director at JLL Poland.

“Looking at absorption versus supply, Warsaw takes first position, outperforming Western European cities such as Dublin, Frankfurt, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and Lisbon, which are recognized as highly competitive locations for attracting companies following Brexit,” says Trzósło.

According to JLL, growing employment has boosted office space absorption. By the end of 2017, around 36,000 more people were working in modern office buildings in Warsaw when compared to 2016. This number rose to 80,000 people nationwide. As a result, the vacancy rate significantly decreased in Poland’s capital — from 14.2 percent to 11.7 percent in just 12 months. Overall, Poland’s vacancy rate dropped from 12.7 percent at the end of 2016 to 10.8 percent by the end of 2017.