Existing and prospective buyers of Polish retail sites have not been discouraged by the country’s new Sunday trading restrictions and stricter commercial property tax regulations. Under the new rules, trading has been banned on two Sundays a month, moving up to three Sundays a month in 2019 and then a total ban from 2020, apart from seven Sundays a year. Meanwhile, the amended Corporate Income Tax Act is designed to force international companies to pay more tax on any earnings made in Poland.

At first glance this would appear to dim the allure of the Polish retail market, but Je˛drzej Suchowolec, a senior adviser at real estate advisory firm Cresa Poland, says that 2018 actually looks promising for the sector. “We expect interest from South African and German institutional investors to continue, alongside growing interest from Asian and Central and Eastern European funds,” he says.

Suchowolec believes that there are two main trends in the offing.

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