British Polish Chamber of Commerce

The event was a part of a series of meetings related to the subject of investment potential, organised by the BPCC in different locations such as Wrocław, Kraków and London. According to the reports by Knight Frank, the real estate market is on the upturn, both on the demand and supply side. This phenomenon does not regard only the central market but also regional centers. The reports say that “Kraków is still the largest and the most dynamically developing regional office market in Poland that total resources will soon exceed 800, 000 square meters. The city enjoys much popularity among tenants, as demonstrated by the fact that at the end of the third quarter of 2015, the vacancy rate amounted only to 4%. Stable situation and good macroeconomic perspectives encourage investors to locate capital in Kraków".

The participants of the event, who was the group of over 50 representatives of local business interested in real estate, were warmly welcomed by Urszula Kwaśniewska, BPCC Branch Director Kraków & Katowice. The main aim of the meeting was to answer the questions related to sales transactions of rented offices and also to prepare the owners, tenants and investors to negotiate tenancy agreements successfully.

Monika Sułdecka-Karaś, Partner and Regional Director at Knight Frank, was the first speaker who presented the office market in Poland. Sułdecka-Karaś reassured that “stable rent charges give tenants the sense of security and a mature and dynamic market encourages developers to invest in Kraków. She said that this year one can observe the ever increasing demand for the offices from the existing and new companies. That means further and successful development of the office market.

Subsequently, Krzysztof Cipiur, Manager in Capital Markets at Knight Frank discussed investing in the property market, taking into consideration the specific features of the Kraków market. Cipiur pointed out the lack of business and financial center in Kraków, dispersion of the major office spaces, high hotel market share, lack of storage capacities and development of BPO/SSC sector that have a significant impact on the prices. Cipiur said that currently, 91% of the real estate investment is international, of which 60% is British or American.

The following spoke: Beata Kuczek-Maruta, Owner of Kuczek-Maruta Law Firm, who discussed the types of tenancy agreements. She drew attention to the sort of purchases according to the purchased item such as office space or acquisition of a company. Kuczek-Maruta also discussed legal consequences of taking over financial liabilities of entities once the sale is concluded. This was completed by Tomasz Nadrowski, Transaction Manager at Ech Investment S.A., who discussed the process of sale of properties by developers.

The conference ended with a discussion panel represented by: Magdalena Walas, Sabre; Artur Apostoł, GRIFFIN Real Estate; Tomasz Wachowski, Kuczek-Maruta Law Firm and Joanna Nicińska, Echo Investment S.A. The Panel was moderated by Krzysztof Cipiur. The discussion focused on what is the most important when selecting location that led to discussion about changing employment conditions and growing expectations of Generation X and Y to their employers.

After the substantial part of the meeting, the participants continued talks at lunch in a less formal atmosphere.

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