In the first half of 2022, office take-up in Warsaw hit a record high of 479,400 sq m, representing a year-on-year increase of 94%. Savills forecasts that the growing undersupply of office space will drive rental growth going forward, further accelerated by shrinking availability and significant increases in construction costs and office property management fees.
According to Savills latest report, Warsaw’s total office stock reached 6.27 million sq m in the first half of 2022, with office space slowly becoming more evenly distributed across the city. Central zones currently account for 45% of the capital’s office stock while the remaining 55% is located outside the city centre.
The office development pipeline in Warsaw currently stands at 303,100 sq m, its lowest since records began. Another 122,500 sq m is expected to be added to the market in the second half of the year, bringing 2022’s total new supply to 251,500 sq m. The largest projects underway include Varso Tower (66,300 sq m), The Bridge (47,000 sq m) and Skyliner II (38,000 sq m), with the first of the three to be delivered this year.
“Development activity has been slowing since the first quarter of 2020 as some projects were put on hold following the outbreak of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, whose consequences include rising prices of materials, an outflow of some Ukrainian construction workers and project postponement. As a result, the total office development scheduled for completion in 2023-2024 amounts to 251,600 sq m, which will further widen the supply gap, making it more difficult for tenants to secure new office locations in the coming years,” comments Daniel Czarnecki, Head of Office Agency, Landlord Representation, Savills.
According to Savills, Warsaw’s vacancy rate stood at 11.9% at the end of June 2022, down by 0.7 pp year-on-year. Prime office rents were in the range of EUR 21-25.5/sq m/month in the most prestigious locations in the Centre, with an upward trend recorded in some buildings, and EUR 13-15/sq m/month in Służewiec, the largest non-central business district of the capital.
